OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14543748
BETHLEHEM STEEL CORPORATION-BETH FORGE DIVISION
BETHLEHEM, PA—
Event description
BURIED BY COAL SLIDE
Investigation abstract
A BETHLEHEM STEEL CORPORATION EMPLOYEE WAS OPERATING A SCRAPER WAGON IN THE COKE CLUDED PILE UNDERCUTTING AND RAINFALL ON THE PREVIOUS DAY. DIVISION TO TRANSFER COAL FROM COAL PILES TO AN UNDERGROUND CONVEYOR SYSTEM. WH ILE THE OPERATOR WAS DRIVING THE VEHICLE NEXT TO A 40 FOOT-HIGH COAL PILE. THE T RANSMISSION FLUID HOSE PROBABLY DEVELOPED A MAJOR LEAK, SO THE EMPLOYEE PARKED T HE SCRAPER NEXT TO THE PILE. IT IS CONJECTURED THAT THE OPERATOR SHUT OFF THE FR ONT ENGINE AND WAS MOVING TO SHUT OFF THE REAR ENGINE WHEN A COAL PILE SLIDE OCC URRED. EMPLOYEES FOUND THE REAR ENGINE STILL RUNNING AND EMPLOYEE #1 COMPLETELY BURIED BY COAL. HE WAS FOUND MIDWAY BETWEEN THE FRONT AND REAR ENGINES ON THE SI DE OF THE VEHICLE CLOSEST TO THE COAL PILE. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO THE SLIDE IN
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 42 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 12
- Source
- 14
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 6
- Task assigned
- 1
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.