Mass Transit Administration: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Dec 1, 1993 (fatal): Employee dies when struck by subway car

Employee #1, a subway rail car operator, was inspecting a rail car before starti ng his daily run. The car was found to be inoperable and Employee #1 was told to go to another area to pick up another car. He had to cross a live track and was struck by a subway car. Employee #1 received multiple injuries, which caused hi s death.

Incident on Jan 4, 1990: Employee injured by exploding drum

At approximately 9:00 a.m. on January 4, 1990, Employee #1 was assigned by his s upervisor to cut two 55 gal drums in half using a oxyacetylene torch. The drums were going to be used as holding containers for soap and water for transit buses . At approximately 11:15 a.m., he had cut open one 55 gal drum and was starting on the second drum when it exploded. The bottom end blew off, striking him in th e lower left leg. The resulting fireball also caused a minor flash burn to the e mployee's face and neck. Employee #1 was transported to University Hospital. No safety procedures were in place nor were instructions given to employees concern ing the cleaning or purging of drums.

Incident on Feb 23, 1987: Employee injured when struck by a train

On February 23, 1987, Employee #1 and a coworker on the midnight shift were sent to clear switch #21 along track #1, which was not working due to snow between t he rails. Snow was falling heavily but the subway trains had been kept running t o keep the track clear for the following day's operations. At approximately 5:05 a.m., Employee #1 was on the track sweeping snow from the switch when a train t hat had been running on another track was switched to track #1 and struck him as he tried to jump clear. He suffered two fractured legs, one with serious bone a nd tissue damage, and a fractured shoulder. The employees did not expect a train on track #1 and the train engineer did not expect to see workers on it. The tra in was traveling on track #1 in a reverse traffic pattern. The darkness and snow restricted both visibility and sound transmission. Employee #1 was also wearing a hood at the time of the accident.