Maintenance Mechanic Dies After Being Trapped in the Pneumatic Door of a Vacuum Cooler - South Carolina

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program
• Description:
  On January 2, 2002, a 37-year-old maintenance mechanic (the victim) died after being caught between the rear of a vacuum cooler tube and the cooler tube's door. On December 31, 2001, the victim and his shop foreman changed the control valve that controlled the air flow that raised and lowered the vacuum cooler tube's 2,000-pound door. On the morning of January 2, 2002, the foreman instructed the victim to check to see if the door was operating properly before the vacuum cooler was placed back into service. Using the control on the pneumatic valve, the victim partially raised the door. As he positioned himself between the door and the rear of the cooler tube, one of the air lines on the pneumatic valve blew off, allowing the door to lower, pinning the victim between the door and the rear of the cooler tube. The foreman heard the rush of air and walked around the tube, finding the victim pinned. He held the air line on the pneumatic valve by hand and raised the door allowing the victim to fall to the shop floor. Coworkers initiated cardiopulmonary resuscitation while the foreman called 911 from the shop office. The emergency medical service (EMS) responded and transported the victim to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Maintenance Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Occupational Injuries Safety Safety Management
• Keywords:
  Accident-prevention Maintenance-workers Occupational-accidents Occupational-hazards OSHA Region 4 Safety-education Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Safety-practices Traumatic-injuries
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Machine (All) ; Machine - Manufacturing ; Prevention through Design (PtD)
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  NIOSH (In-House)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFACE200205
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Construction
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  South Carolina ; OSHA Region 4
• 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
• Contributor:
  Casini, Virgil J.
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20023955
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2005-100551
• 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:
  2004
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  11 - Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2003/03/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:e171a132f43c9a117eba9ab62e90e577d7fcd4fe74e92924cf708b96a62956b2f0a83803beda11ec011b7d32cf331c33773d12e078f70d21e62cee2566131538
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/167348/cdc_167348_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 262.55 KB ]