Accident: 120138581 - Construction Worker Injured In Fall From Roof

On October 21, 1999, Employee #1, a construction worker for a general building contractor, was working 29 ft above a concrete deck, installing wooden trusses on a commercial building. He was asked to go to the trusses and unhook the hoistline from a load of roof sheeting materials that had been set on them. Employee #1 climbed on the trusses, which were not yet braced. As he unhooked the load line from the crane, he stepped onto an unbraced truss; it rolled out of hanger because his weight and that of the load. Employee #1 and the load then fell 29 ft to the concrete deck. He suffered numerous rib fractures, a fractured right arm, a fractured pelvis, and head injuries. Causal factors that contributed to this accident included: (1) Employee #1 was instructed to work in an unsafe area; (2) the trusses had weight placed on them prior to being braced, as required; (3) the employer failed to provide Employee #1 with fall protection, as required; and (4) the employer failed to train Employee #1 on company safety procedures.

construction, untrained, unsecured, bracing, fall, fracture, head, work rules, fall protection

Accident: 170612121 - Carpenter Injured When Struck By Falling Brace

Employee #1, a carpenter, was helping to move a 9 ft framed wall into place in a single-family house under construction. A brace from an adjoining wall dislodged, striking him just below his waist. Employee #1 suffered a fractured pelvis and a damaged urethra.

construction, falling object, pelvis, bracing, struck by, wall, fracture, brace, work rules, unsecured

Accident: 656116 - Two Injured In Fall When Scaffold Support Fails

Employees #1 and #2, ages 16 and 22, respectively, were working from a carpenter's bracket scaffold that had a 2-by-4 center support bracket. The lumber bracket failed and both workers fell 17 ft onto a dumpster. Employee #1 was hospitalized; Employee #2 was treated and released.

elevated work plat, scaffold, scaffold collapse, construction, fall, equipment failure, bracing

Accident: 700674 - Injured In Fall When Scaffold Boards Give Way

Employee #1 was walking on scaffold boards that were on the inside pick of a tubular welded-frame scaffold, located between the main scaffold and a previously erected block wall. The scaffold boards gave out from under him and he fell 15 ft to the ground. Employee #1 sustained injuries that required hospitalization. The accident was the result of a missing scaffold bracket.

scaffold, scaffold collapse, unsecured, fall, construction, bracing, tubular scaffold

Accident: 170205629 - Killed When Struck By Concrete Column

On the afternoon of March 4, 1999, Employee #1, a journeyman carpenter, was rigging a column form on the eleventh floor on the south side of a building. The tower crane operator was moving concrete column forms from the south tower to the north tower. Several of the columns had already been stripped and flown to the north tower. Employee #1 was rigging the forms using nylon chokers, which were passed through the void between the plywood and the top clamp, and then passed through the second clamp, where they were secured. There was a gap between adjacent 2 x 4's. For some reason, Employee #1 climbed above the second lowest clamp to feed the choker into position and secured himself to the form using his safety harness and pelican hook. No one saw the column topple. Employee #1 was found partially trapped beneath the column and secured to it by his pelican hook. The form was removed from his chest, and the crew members administered CPR until the paramedics arrived . Employee #1 was transported to San Francisco General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:20 p.m. on March 4, 1999. The cause of his death was multiple blunt force injuries to his chest, caused by the top clamp on the form. Employee #1 had positioned himself on the 29 in. side of the column and was secured to the vertical steel tube by a clamp. He and his crew members had followed this standard practice many times prior to the accident, and the forms were not secured during this time. This incident could have been prevented if the column forms had been securely braced. The employer was cited for a violation of T8CCR 1713(b), which states that form panels for concrete structures shall be securely anchored, guyed, or braced to prevent them from falling or collapsing.

construction, carpenter, bracing, concrete form work, chest, struck by, work rules, unsecured, pinned, cpr

Accident: 800516 - Two Injured In Fall When Scaffold Collapses

Employees #1 and #2, both plasterers, were working from an approximately 50 ft high, 5 ft long by 7 ft wide single-tower, fabricated frame scaffold. Before finishing for the day, they removed two braces at the bottom to use elsewhere. The following morning they walked up the stairs in the interior of the building and climbed out a window onto the scaffold. The scaffold collapsed with Employees #1 and #2 on it; both workers sustained injuries that required hospitalization.

construction, scaffold, scaffold collapse, brace, fall, equipment failure, bracing, unsecured, work rules, collapse

Accident: 664037 - Injured In Fall When Scaffold Bracket Fails 8

Employee #1 and three coworkers were working from a 6 ft 9 in. high carpenter's bracket scaffold that was attached to a concrete form. They were finishing a concrete pour when the end bracket collapsed. Employee #1 fell to the ground and a coworker fell on top of him. Employee #1 sustained injuries that required hospitalization.

unsecured, scaffold, equipment failure, construction, concrete form work, fall, bracing, struck by