NOTE: this incident happened long BEFORE OSHA had 1910.146 in place…
At about 3:30 p.m. on October 10, 1986, Employee #1, a self contractor, arrived to inspect the sawmill’s fire protection sprinkler system backflow valve located in an underground vault 8 ft deep by 6 ft wide by 12 ft long with a 31 in. manhole opening. At about 4:20 p.m. a truck driver saw Employee #1 laying in 14 in. of water at the bottom of the vault and reported it to the mill office. Meanwhile…
