Abstract

During the fall of 2007, a 53-year-old male iron foreman died when he fell approximately 18 feet from roofing being installed on a retail building under new construction. Two work crews were installing metal decking for a roof by laying corrugated metal sheets to the joists of a retail building being constructed. All workers wore personal fall arrest systems complete with lanyards on the roof; none of the workers were tied off to the building. The foreman had accessed the work site via a 32-foot extension ladder to check on the progress of the work. After speaking to the first crew, the foreman walked along the steel metal decking and joists to talk to the second crew. When he was approximately 71 feet away from the ladder at his origination access point, he fell 18 feet to the concrete floor below. Emergency medical services were contacted. They transported the foreman to the local hospital where the local coroner pronounced him dead due to a brain injury.

To prevent future occurrences of similar incidents, the following recommendations have been made:

Recommendation No. 1: Employers should ensure all employees use personal fall arrest systems appropriately.

Recommendation No. 2: Employers should implement and enforce a written safety policy which states the consequences of not following company policy.

Recommendation No. 3: General contractors should ensure subcontractors have a viable and applicable safety program that is implemented and enforced by both subcontractor and general contractor management.

Document Type

Report

Release Date

9-5-2008

Incident Number

07KY071

Notes/Citation Information

A summary of this case is available as the additional file listed below.

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07KY071_Summary.pdf (34 kB)
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