Municipal Sewer Maintenance Worker Drowns Inside Sewer Wet Well in Illinois

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program
• Description:
  A municipal sewer maintenance worker (victim) drowned inside a sewer wet well. The victim was part of a four-man sewer maintenance crew assigned to clean out a sewer wet well, which was 20 feet deep and 6 feet in diameter. The victim entered through a 24-inch-diameter manway and climbed down on fixed steel rungs which extended to the bottom. The wet well atmosphere had not been tested nor ventilated before entering. The victim was wearing a full-body harness (secured to a winch cable) and a supplied-air respirator. After descending 8 feet to a grating platform, the victim installed an inflatable sewer plug into the end of an 18-inch-diameter inlet sewer pipe 2 feet below ground level. After inflating the sewer plug the victim climbed down to the bottom of the wet well and began cleaning out the wet well with an 8-inch-diameter sewer vacuum hose. Within a few minutes the victim removed the respirator facepiece, complaining to a co-worker that the respirator was in his way. Approximately 30 minutes later, the sewer plug gave way causing sewage to flood the wet well. Co-workers were unable to rescue the victim and he subsequently drowned.
• Content Notes:
  Publication Date supplied by FACE program
  
  date does not appear on report.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Maintenance Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Occupational Injuries Safety Safety Management Sewage
• Keywords:
  Accident-prevention Injuries Injury-prevention Maintenance-workers Occupational-accidents Occupational-hazards Occupational-safety-programs OSHA Region 5 Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Safety-practices Sewer-cleaning Traumatic-injuries

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Confined Space
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  NIOSH (In-House)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFACE9014
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Illinois ; OSHA Region 5
• 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:
  6 pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20024465
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2005-102133
• 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:
  1990
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  22 - Utilities - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1989/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:cfc3c58b46cf7e2a09d4e3510f0e3f6b5c0cc154815ccc86d8f7e5fbc6c03f954cf0fcc444d50d87d8c627a08f88146d190b12551ae7a365ea743d6aebad2857
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/167328/cdc_167328_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 19.31 KB ]