Inspection Detail

Inspection: 125612523 - Napa Pipe Corporation

Inspection Information - Office: American Canyon District Office

Investigation Summary

Employee #1, of NAPA Pipe (NPC), was working in a MPS plant, taping separator ropes into position along an 80 ft length of 3 ft diameter gas line pipe. MPS was a double-ending plant, making 80 ft pipe lengths out of two 40 ft lengths, and then recoating the exterior. After double-ending a pipe, an MPS employee was using a self-contained pneumatic blaster for abrasive-blasting the center weld of the pipe. Employee #1 was on the east side of the blast operator when he heard the air blast indicating that the pipe was going to be released to roll across where he was standing. He began to run to the outside, but the rolling pipe crushed him against a stationary pipe. Employee #1 suffered a crushed chest, fractured ribs, and a ruptured spleen. The MPS operator did not make sure that NPC employees were out of the point of operation before he released the pipe, and the NPC employees did not have machine power controls to stop the release operation.

Keywords: CHEST, FRACTURE, SPLEEN, WORK RULES, CAUGHT BETWEEN, CRUSHED, RIB, PIPE, COMMUNICATION