OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #571497
KENNY CONSTRUCTION COMPANY
LAGRANGE, IL—
Event description
Employees Asphyxiated Due to Oxygen Deficiency in Shaft
Investigation abstract
Two employees entered a 16-foot-diameter drop shaft under construction on the De hospital. Employee #1 died approximately 1 hour later. No tests of the air quali ty in the shaft were performed before entry. ep Tunnel Project. They were asphyxiated from a lack of oxygen, which had been d isplaced by carbon dioxide overnight. The vertical shaft, only 20 feet deep at t he time, had been covered at the end of the previous workday, creating a confine d space. Carbon dioxide from an undetermined source accumulated in the hole, dis placing the oxygen. The two employees entered the shaft in a cage and immediatel y developed breathing difficulties. One of two (Employee #1) fell out of the cag e as it was being pulled from the shaft. Four other employees went down in the c age to rescue him and were overcome as well. All six employees were sent to the
Victims (6)
-
#1 Fatality Age 49 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 16
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 0530
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Hospitalized Age 39 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 16
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 0530
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#3 Hospitalized Age 42 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 16
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 0530
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#4 Hospitalized Age 51 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 16
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 0530
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#5 Hospitalized Age 35 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 16
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 0530
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#6 Hospitalized Age 57 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 16
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 0530
- 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.