Laborer drowns in flooded pipeline after water main was ruptured by a backhoe in California

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  California Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Program (CA/FACE) ; California. Department of Health Services
• Description:
  A 28-year-old, white, Hispanic male laborer (victim) drowned after the pipe in which he was working flooded when a water main was ruptured by a backhoe, releasing 5000 gallons of water into the pipeline. The victim was working with a welder inside a 27-inch pipeline which was under construction. The welder was welding inside the pipeline and the victim had been grouting the joints. A backhoe was operating a short distance away, and the operator was excavating the area when he struck a water line. The welder was able to escape before the water flooded the pipeline, but the victim was trapped inside the pipeline. The California FACE investigator concluded that in order to prevent future similar occurrences, employers should: 1. develop a comprehensive safety program that clearly documents procedures for safe entry into confined spaces. 2. provide lifelines and harnesses and ensure that workers wear them before entering confined spaces where physical hazards such as drowning are present. 3. position a trained standby person outside of confined spaces when a worker enters or works inside. The standby person should visually monitor the tasks being performed inside and should be able to communicate with the workers inside the confined space. 4. not have a backhoe operating or excavation work being performed near workers in a sub-surface confined space when sub-surface structures and/or soil conditions are unknown
• Content Notes:
  Revised
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Confined Spaces Construction Industry Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Safety Management Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Confined-spaces Construction Construction-equipment Construction-industry Construction-workers Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 9 Personal-protection Personal-protective-equipment Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Confined Space ; Construction ; Hispanic ; Foreign Born Workers
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE92CA007
• 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:
  5 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20026965
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2008-100191
• 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 92CA007, 1995 Jun ; :1-5
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1995
• Performing Organization:
  California Department of Health Services
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  23 - Construction - (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:c2b2d3a222f71f80d94f1b7d81da4eec9ba1dcd526a5e3a9d95d29b8d5825b2d793519969135374762de6bc611b654bfe61395377b59a1d4d2d6ad518fdf4bea
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/169065/cdc_169065_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 18.47 KB ]