BARGE RAMP INCIDENTS
- An employee was standing on a barge with a coworker, waiting for a personnel basket to land on the barge. He was holding a small sheet of plywood. He stepped back, stumbled on a board, and fell over the side of the barge into 12 feet of water. He was not wearing a life vest. Rescue attempts by his coworkers with a life ring failed and he drowned.
- An employee on a pile-driving barge was directed to put up a ladder and get survey equipment off a breasting dolphin. A short time later, a coworker and the foreman heard splashes and another employee saw the first employee go under the rake of the barge, where he became trapped. He then surfaced and was carried by the current into some pilings. He was rescued by two coworkers in a john boat and taken to the local emergency room, where he later died.
- Three employees entered a tank on a barge. The tank did not contain sufficient oxygen. One employee died and the other two required hospitalization.
- Two riggers were capping a sulfur well in a shallow bay, working from the deck of a barge equipped with a crane with a clamshell bucket. The employees dug around the well casing and then set a caisson around the wellhead. Standard procedures required them to cut off the casing and then weld a circular plate over the end. The first employee went into the caisson to wrap a sling around the pipe end and was asphyxiated due to hydrogen sulfide gas. The second employee entered the caisson to rescue him and was also overcome by the gas. Neither was wearing respiratory protection (i.e., airline or Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus). Both employees died.