OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14513113
VALLEY READY MIX CONCRETE COMPANY
APPLETON, WI—
Event description
SUFFOCATION IN CONCRETE POWDER BIN
Investigation abstract
ON JULY 24, 1984, AT APPROXIMATELY 7:15 PM, EMPLOYEE #1 WAS BURIED IN CEMENT POW NDER CONSTANT TENSION, IT WAS SPECULATED THAT THE CEMENT LEFT ON THE FLANGES AND THE WALLS ABOVE AND ADJACENT TO THE EMPLOYEE CAVED IN AND COMPLETELY SUBMERGED HIM. IT TOOK RESCUERS NEARLY TWO HOURS TO FREE HIS BODY FROM THE BIN, AS THE POW DER KEPT COLLAPSING AROUND HIM. DER WHILE CLEANING OUT A CEMENT BIN. IT WAS NOT A NORMAL OPERATION TO CLEAN OUT THE CEMENT BIN. IT WAS BEING CLEANED BECAUSE OF A RECENTLY DISCOVERED WATER LEAK . AFTER THE LEAK WAS REPAIRED ALL OF THE CEMENT POWDER WAS BEING EMPTIED FROM TH E BIN. EMPLOYEE #1 WENT INTO THE BIN SEVERAL TIMES TO BREAK UP CHUNKS OF CEMENT, HELPING THE POWDER FLOW OUT OF THE LOWER CHUTE GATE. WHENEVER HE ENTERED THE BI N EMPLOYEE #1 WORE A SAFETY BELT WITH AN ATTACHED ROPE, HELD IN CONSTANT TENSION BY AN OBSERVER AT THE TOP. THE INSIDE OF THE TANK HAD SEVERAL FLANGES WHICH ENA BLED SOME OF THE CEMENT POWDER TO STICK TO THE INNER WALLS. SINCE THE BELT WAS U
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 54 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 14
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 4
- Task assigned
- 2
Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.