Another Fatality OSHA Case file involving a Water Valve Pit (Hazard Information Bulletin regarding Asphyxiation Hazard in Pits: Potential Confined Space Problem) – a SINGLE entrant (the job foreman), a would-be-rescuer, and potentially another would-be-rescuer. The water valve pit was 7 ft in diameter and 16 ft deep. The vault contained a 12″ water main and a 4″ water main that was equipped with a water meter.
The vault had been constructed ten (10) days earlier and had sat undisturbed until the day of the accident when the employees were scheduled to conduct a “pressure test” (HINT HINT) of the system. With 9.2% Oxygen atmosphere, they never stood a chance – a third entered the vault to help his co-workers, but noticed an overpowering musty odor and abruptly stopped and exited; he called 911. The two entrants died and the coworker was not injured (physically). So what happened?
The foreman went down into the vault to read the meter. When he did not return, a laborer looked down through the manhole cover and saw him laying on the ground. The laborer called out to his coworker that the foreman was down and then entered the vault through the manhole and climbed down the ladder. The coworker came over to the manhole and saw the foreman on the ground and the laborer hanging upside down, with his leg caught between the ladder rungs. Neither employee responded to his calls.
OSHA Case File:
On June 20, 2007, Employees #1 and #2 were working in an approximately 7 ft diameter water vault located about 16 ft underground. The vault contained a 12 in. water main and a 4 in. water main that was equipped with a water meter. The vault had been constructed approximately ten days earlier and had sat undisturbed until the day of the accident when the employees were scheduled to conduct a pressure test of the system. Employee #1, the foreman, went down into the vault to read the meter. When he did not return, Employee #2, a laborer, looked down through the manhole cover and saw Employee #1 laying on the ground. Employee #2 called out to a coworker that Employee #1 was down and then entered the vault through the manhole and climb down the ladder. The coworker came over to the manhole and saw Employee #1 on the ground and Employee #2 hanging upside down, with his leg caught between the ladder rungs. Neither employee responded to the coworker’s calls and he started down the manhole. The coworker also started down the manhole but noticed an overpowering musty odor and abruptly stopped and exited. The Fire Department and paramedics responded to the job site and retrieved Employees #1 and #2, both of whom had died. At the time of rescue, the Fire Department’s four gas meters measured the oxygen level in the vault at approximately 9.2 ppm (SAFTENG NOTE: I think OSHA meant to say % and not ppm).
In its referral to OSHA, the Fire Department referenced two workers who succumbed to an IDLH atmosphere.
CLICK HERE for the case file
It is not stated as to how this 10-day old, undisturbed vault, achieved a 9.2% Oxygen level. But I would bet the workers who were doing the “pressure test” on the piping were using Nitrogen as their testing media!
The surviving wife of the foreman killed at the Water Reclamation Plant sued the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. In the lawsuit, she is seeking in excess of $100,000 over the death of her husband who died June 20. According to a June 22 report in the Chicago Tribune, the foreman, 45, of Flossmoor and a laborer, 47, of Aurora, collapsed in a vault 10 feet below street level outside the treatment plant. “One of the workers collapsed while working at the bottom of the vault, and the other collapsed after going to the first man’s aid,” the Tribune reported. “Officials couldn’t say who collapsed first.”
The suit claims the water district breached its duty to provide a safe construction site by allowing fumes and gas to accumulate in an underground vault. The water district is alleged to have created an unsafe condition by allowing poisonous gases to accumulate, failed to alert the foreman of the presence of poisonous gas and failed to provide him with appropriate safety equipment when it knew safety equipment was necessary. The incident occurred at 39th and Central Avenue in Stickney where a construction project was underway at a water purification plant.
