Welder Dies in Explosion While Working Inside a Tanker Trailer in California

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  California Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Program (CA/FACE) ; California. Department of Health Services
• Description:
  A 37-year-old, white, non-Hispanic, male welder (the victim) died when an explosion occurred in the tanker trailer where he was working. The victim was a self-employed welding contractor who was working for a bulk carrier trucking company. The victim had been asked to repair a bulkhead of a petroleum tanker trailer. According to co-workers, the tanker trailer had been "blown out" (a process used to rid tankers of excess petroleum vapors) several days prior to the incident. It is not known whether the victim had performed any air sampling before beginning work on the day of the incident. An explosion occurred shortly after the victim began welding. The victim's employee, who was outside and on top of the tanker at the time of the incident, left the scene shortly after the incident occurred. Police were the first to arrive and one officer went inside the tanker trailer to check on the victim. He reported that the victim had been killed during the explosion. He was pronounced dead at 2:28 pm. The victim was not brought out of the tanker trailer until approximately 7 hours after the incident occurred due to the fire department's concern regarding another potential explosion. The CA/FACE investigator concluded that, in order to prevent similar future occurrences, employers should: 1. maintain a written Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP). 2. initiate a comprehensive enforcement and safety review program for confined space entry procedures. 3. expand confined space policies to address hazards due to oxygen deficient, flammable/explosive, or toxic environments.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Confined Spaces Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety Safety Management Staff Development Welding Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Confined-spaces Injuries Injury-prevention Occupational-hazards OSHA Region 9 Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Safety-programs Training Traumatic-injuries Trucking Welders Welding-industry Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Confined Space ; Hispanic
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE93CA009
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  8 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20026993
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2008-100132
• 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 93CA009, 1994 Apr ; :1-8
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1994
• Performing Organization:
  California Department of Health Services
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  48-49 - Transportation and Warehousing - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1991/09/30
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:e241e414067f7d4b4df054cfcb4ebeafb890f6bf7635c47c9732c96aa19c7112137ff7805d5f55bbfaa7129211883097245611cf8a8b818a7a16814b5a55f7c3
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/169046/cdc_169046_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 30.07 KB ]