Massachusetts Plant Operator Dies in Fall at a Petroleum Marketing Terminal

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Massachusetts Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Project (Massachusetts FACE) ; Massachusetts. Department of Public Health
• Description:
  On December 13, 1993, a 37 year old, male plant operator was fatally injured at a Massachusetts oil supply terminal when he fell nine feet from the top of a home heating fuel truck. The victim and the fuel truck driver had climbed on top of the truck to purge air from a load arm assembly line prior to filling the truck with fuel. The plant operator inserted the loading tube in the opening at the top of the truck and pushed it in until it reached the bottom of the tank. When he pressed the loading tube handle to activate the fuel line, a jet of compressed air blew the pipe out of the truck and knocked the victim onto the asphalt ground below. Seconds later, the terminal supervisor found the victim unconscious and bleeding profusely from the head and face. The supervisor immediately summoned emergency medical assistance and the victim was transported to a hospital, where he died five days later from craniocerebral injuries due to blunt trauma. The MA FACE Program concluded that to prevent similar occurrences in the future, employers should: 1. Explore the feasibility of devising a system to stabilize the load arm tube when purging air from supply lines
  
  2. Install mechanical devices (safeguards) in the load arm assemblies to allow for a slower or more diffuse release of built up pressure
  
  3. Always use the on site purging tank with the built in man lift and guard rail when evacuating air from supply lines
  
  Furthermore, fuel truck manufacturers should: 4. Consider making all fuel trucks with bottom loading charge points.
  
  
• Content Notes:
  Publication Date provided by FACE program
  
  not printed on the report.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Air Pressure Fuel Oils Occupational Health Oil And Gas Industry Personal Protective Equipment Safety Safety Management Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Air-pressure Fuels Injuries Injury-prevention Machine-guarding Oil-industry OSHA Region 1 Protective-measures Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Falls ; Foreign Born Workers
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE94MA007
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20028422
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 94MA007, 1994 Aug ; :1-3
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1994
• Performing Organization:
  Massachusetts Department of Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  22 - Utilities - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1992/09/30
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:33f60f0eb6d92ba97607dfcf28b5561d39fb54a6739188c14d54439cd5fb25bbaf4df7f5557a67564b72db2f7f5077398b8211bcceb75f33babfc0db4cacdb44
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/166648/cdc_166648_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 112.96 KB ]