41 Year-Old Male Dies after Being Struck in the Head with an Auger

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Kentucky Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Program (KY FACE) ; University of Kentucky. College of Public Health. Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center
• Description:
  On October 23, 2002, a 41-year-old male (decedent) died after he was hit in the head with the handle of an auger. He was part of a four-member work crew tying water lines of private residences into a municipal water line. He was injured while backing the auger out of the hole and the handle became tangled with the rotating auger bit which caused the handle to flip up and strike him in the head, twice. After being struck, with co-workers following him trying to convince him to sit down, he walked away from the site until emergency rescue workers arrived and convinced him to sit down on a stretcher. He was transported to a local hospital then air lifted to a larger facility where he died five days later from a closed head injury. To prevent similar incidents from occurring, KY FACE recommends: 1. Employees should practice safe operating procedures when using dangerous equipment. 2. Equipment manufacturers should re-evaluate the design of the handle to direct auger bits and research the possibility of a new design.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Construction Industry Nervous System Nervous System Diseases Occupational Health Safety Safety Management
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-potential Accident-prevention Author Keywords: Auger Bit Brain-damage Construction-industry Construction-workers Distracted Ditch Equipment-design Equipment-operators Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 4 Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-practices Traumatic-injuries Work-practices

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Construction ; Prevention through Design (PtD)
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE02KY127
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Kentucky ; OSHA Region 4
• 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:20026414
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2012-114006
• 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 02KY127, 2003 Jun ; :1-5
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2003
• Performing Organization:
  Kentucky Department of Health Services
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  22 - Utilities - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1993/09/30
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:866612391908184e290d6b8b1031986f1ebd7a4bc506623ce4adafa4028994c2d11adef17d90c1aa575e3c37517d735cf150300af8479bdd1130b235d42b330f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/170160/cdc_170160_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 379.26 KB ]