Inspection Detail

Inspection: 303083034 - Nelson Service Company, Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Baton Rouge Area Office

Investigation Summary

On November 27, 2000, Employee #1 and a coworker, of Nelson Service Company, were at Alcoa Primary Metals, completing insulation work on the ducts coming off a coke cooler hood. They were dismantling a scaffold that had been erected on three sides of the cooler hood; the rear of the hood had an 8 ft by 8 ft rotating barrel cooler. They had worked their way down to the last platform, and the coworker stepped down to the floor level on the right side of the cooler. Employee #1 was descending behind him and reached up and unclipped his lanyard, attaching it to the left front part of his harness. He had started to step down to the floor when his lanyard or some part of his harness became caught in the large barrel cooler, which was rotating at 4 rpm. The barrel cooler pulled him backward and rotated him around, knocking him against the guardrails as it turned. The coworker ran around to the other side to try to free Employee #1 but he had already rotated around too high on the barrel and was out of reach. The coworker then ran to get someone to turn off the barrel. When he returned, he found that Employee #1's harness had detached from the barrel cooler and he had fallen to the floor. Employee #1 sustained multiple fractures and was killed.

Keywords: FRACTURE, ROTATING PARTS, DISMANTLING, SAFETY BELT, STRUCK AGAINST, CAUGHT BY, CONSTRUCTION, DESCENDING, COKE DRUM