Accident: 14225049 - Employee Dies Of Apparent Heart Attack After Spray Painting

At approximately 4:20 p.m. on March 9, 2000, Employee #1 had finished spray painting a bulldozer inside a larger paint area and was cleaning his paint equipment with solvent. Although he had been wearing a supplied air respirator approximately one hour earlier, he had since removed it. Employee #1 collapsed and died. He was allegedly suffering from pneumonia and had suffered a heart attack, but the autopsy results are pending. Employee #1 had been working for this employer for approximately 2 weeks and had been doing this type of work for 20 years.

spray painting, painter, paint solvent, respirator, respiratory, heart attack, air line respirator, inhalation

Accident: 873612 - Employee Killed When Caught Between Vehicles

Employee #1 was hooking up a semi-trailer at the end of his work shift. He backed the tractor under the trailer and then got out to hook up the air lines for the trailer brakes. When he did this, he apparently did not set the tractor brakes. He also failed to secure all the lines so that air began to bleed off. This caused the trailer safety brake to disengage and the truck apparently started to roll backward. While trying to get to the tractor and set its brakes, Employee #1 became caught between the tractor door and the front of an adjacent trailer. The preliminary cause of death, per the county coroner, was traumatic asphyxia.

trailer truck, tractor trailer, inattention, brake, caught between, asphyxiated, work rules, unmanned, air line, tractor

Accident: 170579270 - Employee Injured When Struck By Flying Air Line

Employee #1 was blowing air back through a concrete pumping line to clean it out when the device he was using to clear the line became jammed. Employee #1 disconnected the air line while it was still pressurized at approximately 900 psi. The line struck Employee #1 on the head; he sustained serious injuries that required hospitalization.

high pressure, air line, construction, head, struck by, air pressure, flying object, cleaning, work rules, air hose

Accident: 508895 - Diver Drowns When Air Hose Is Severed

Employee #1, a scuba diver, was installing a shackle onto a fixed anchor line in approximately 120 ft of water when, for some reason his high pressure hose was severed in two and he drowned. Causal factors contributing to this accident: (1) both primary and alternate regulators were in need of repair; (2) there was no flotation equipment with an air source separate from the breathing air supply; and (3) there was no standby diver. In addition, Employee #1 was using borrowed equipment that was unfamiliar to him, he was not line-tended, and he was not carrying a reserve air supply.

scuba, diver, air line, air hose, severed, inadequate maint, drown, water, work rules

Accident: 14318000 - Employee Dies Of Asphyxia In Oxygen-Deficient Atmosphere

Employee #1 entered a 4,000 gallon kettle that contained nitrogen. He was wearing a half-mask organic vapor respirator that did not adequately protect him from the oxygen-deficient atmosphere, and he died of asphyxia. The company claimed to have a confined space entry program; however, the program was in paper form only. The fill-in-the-blank style had not been completed and designations as to entrants, attendants, or supervisors were left blank. Testing and monitoring equipment was not provided to employees to test the atmosphere before or during a confined space entry. Emergency rescue equipment was not provided for the entrant or for any other employee attempting a rescue. No permits were provided for employees, and no procedure for completing permits was in place.

work rules, inhalation, oxygen deficiency, work rules, confined space, asphyxiated, respirator, ppe, air line respirator