Journeyman Pipefitter Killed When Struck in Head by Grooved End Cap under Pressure

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Michigan Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (Project) (MIFACE) ; Michigan State University. Department of Medicine. Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• Description:
  On Tuesday, October 29, 2002, a 49-year-old journeyman pipefitter was struck in the head by a 6-inch diameter grooved cap he was removing from the end of a pipe. The pipe had been pressurized to test its integrity and was still under 100 pounds of air pressure. The force of the blow from the cap striking him in the face knocked him backwards over the rail of the scissors lift that he was standing on to a concrete floor 14 feet below. When his co-worker, working on the lift immediately to the left of the victim, heard the noise, he looked to his right, but the victim was already on the floor below the lift. Figure 1 is a photograph of the pipes on which the men were working with the scissors lift (shown in the retracted position) below. The second pipe from the left is the pipe involved in the fatality. It was recessed into the wall opening from the force of the end cap exploding off of it. Another co-worker who heard the noise came to assist and found the victim bleeding from the face and having difficulty breathing. EMS arrived shortly, treated the victim, and transported him to the emergency room of a local hospital. He died in the hospital eighteen hours later. Recommendations: 1. Employers should ensure that their written accident prevention plan identifies and describes all hazards that could be encountered in the worksite and how to recognize and avoid them. 2. Develop a specific standard operating procedure for the task including tagging the valves with time and date of pressurization. 3. Use an end cap that remains attached to the pipe during loosening as the pressure is relieved and prior to removal or outfit the end cap with a pressure relieving device. 4. Periodically reinforce skill and safety training.
• Content Notes:
  Publication Date provided by FACE program
  
  not printed on the report.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Construction Industry Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Occupational Injuries Safety Safety Management
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-potential Accident-prevention Construction-industry Construction-workers Injuries Injury-prevention Occupational-accidents Occupational-hazards OSHA Region 5 Plumbers Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-practices Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-performance Work-practices

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE02MI090
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Michigan ; OSHA Region 5
• 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:20026801
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2008-102528
• 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 02MI090, 2003 Aug ; :1-8
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2003
• Performing Organization:
  Michigan State University
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  23 - Construction - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2002/09/01
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:29bba0346043600326843761e3735dfb0889cfe34ec381d39fd066e3cb475c34032bd1ab5716b088ca47e2285ac7168c305d03fb91caf173deb81def8915416c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/169178/cdc_169178_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 479.65 KB ]