Maintenance Worker Struck in Head by Exploding Pressurized Tank

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Michigan Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (Project) (MIFACE) ; Michigan State University. Department of Medicine. Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• Description:
  On June 21, 2001, a 39-year-old male died when a 500-gallon storage tank he had started to empty of waste oil and water exploded from its base striking him in the head. He had vacuumed the waste oil and water into the tank from a trench on the other side of the plant and transported it with a lift truck to the underground waste storage area for disposal at a later time. He was pressurizing the contents of the tank with air from a compressed airline located just inside the plant to speed the evacuation of the waste oil and water into the waste storage area. The tank was not approved for use as a pressurized vessel. Fittings on the tank had been adapted for the purpose of connecting them to the compressed airline. The force of the explosion propelled the tank 500 feet in the air over the plant fence and a nearby bank parking lot onto a busy east/west road. This was a maintenance task that had been conducted in this manner for over 6 years. No one witnessed the actual event. Statements from nearby workers and maintenance staff were relied upon to reconstruct what was presumed to have occurred. The deceased was found lying near the place where he had been last seen beginning to drain the tank. Emergency personnel confirmed that he was dead when they arrived at the site. Recommendations: 1. Conduct job safety analyses and establish standard operating procedures for routine maintenance tasks and train the maintenance personnel in these procedures. 2. Do not pressurize a container not approved as a pressure vessel. 3. Train maintenance personnel to anticipate conditions that could jeopardize their safety or the safety of others. 4. Inform employees that no equipment is to be altered or retrofitted. Establish a procedure for a qualified person(s) to review proposed equipment changes. Conduct periodic plant audits specifically for non-standard use of equipment.
• Content Notes:
  Publication Date provided by FACE program
  
  not printed on the report.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Occupational Health Safety Safety Management Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-potential Accident-prevention Equipment-reliability Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 5 Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Safety-practices Training Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-operations 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/NIOSHSFACE01MI038
• 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:
  7 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20026780
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2008-109010
• 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 01MI038, 2002 Feb ; :1-6
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2002
• Performing Organization:
  Michigan State University
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  31-33 - Manufacturing - (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-512:69893ed4804519abd370f956c9bf2cdb49618b11c105136ba39b314be3bbfd19d4e7d508c5f140feae4ffeacfadcd2cf999d9c17dbd1529d6183b47feab79c4b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/169191/cdc_169191_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 190.24 KB ]