Worker Killed When a Section of Pipeline Crashed Through Excavator Cab and Struck Him in the Chest During a Tandem Lift - West Virginia: FACE 2013-05

Details

• Personal Author:
  Romano, Nancy T. ; McKenzie, Tony ; Almanei, Rayed ; Moore, Melanie L.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program
• Description:
  On Sunday, December 16, 2012, at approximately 6:37 p.m., a 44-year-old male excavator operator died after being struck in the chest by a section of 16-inch gas pipeline. Two excavator operators were using a tandem lift procedure to transport a 128-foot section of the pipe from a construction area (top of hill) to an installation area (bottom of hill). The two excavators were on the right side of the pipe, and the operators needed to maneuver around the pipe prior to moving it down to the installation area. Both excavators were attached to the pipe with slings, approximately 20 feet from each end of the pipe. The lead operator lowered his end, detached from the pipe, and positioned his excavator on the left side of the pipe ; once on the left side, he reattached to the pipe and raised it off the ground. The operator of the rear excavator attached at the opposite end (rear) of the pipe, then raised the pipe off the ground to cab height and maneuvered the excavator around the end of the pipe while swinging the boom of the excavator. When the pipe was in line with the excavator cab, the pipe plunged through the front windshield, entering the cab and striking the operator in the chest. Police, emergency medical services, and the medical examiner arrived, and the excavator operator was pronounced dead at the scene.
• Subjects:
  • Accidents, Occupational
  • Construction Industry
  • Fatal Outcome
  • Occupational Health
  • Safety
• Keywords:
  • OSHA Region 3
  • Excavation equipment
  • Excavations
  • Gas industry
  • Equipment operators
  • Lifting
  • Injuries
  • Traumatic injuries
  • Transport mechanisms
  • Construction equipment
  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  All ; Construction ; Machine (All) ; Machine - Construction ; Energy Production
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  NIOSH (In-House)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFACE201305
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  West Virginia ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  15 pdf pages
• Volume:
  2013
• Issue:
  5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20050002
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2017-102714
• Citation:
  Morgantown, : U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2017
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  23 - Construction - (NAICS 2022)
• Start Date:
  2012/12/16
• Resource Number:
  FACE 2013-05
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/167252/cdc_167252_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 901.78 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:11f576b77015d09f6ff101981d58ecd255cde4d6955e74035a753db793c69771d5e7672d03e3d8cf4706b45e25424ffc65c53ce3e8c2f03f163d0e56463d0986