Cement Finisher Dies After 160-Foot Fall from Scaffold

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  A 27 year old male cement finisher was dismantling suspended scaffolding inside a 172 foot high circular concrete silo when he lost his balance and fell from the scaffolding. His safety lanyard broke and he fell 160 feet to the concrete floor of the silo. He was employed for 3 years by a construction company that specialized in slip form construction. The company employs a corporate safety director and holds weekly safety meetings each Monday morning prior to the start of work. At the time of the incident the victim and a coworker had completed the interior finish of a silo and had begun to disassemble the scaffolding. Each man was using a nylon rope lanyard attached to a chain on a scaffold bracket. The brackets were spaced 6 feet apart. The victim lost his balance and fell off the end of the scaffolding. The victim fell and jerked upwards as the lanyard caught him. As his weight dropped back on the lanyard, it snapped. An inspection of the lanyard revealed burn damage in several places, including the place where it snapped. This damage probably occurred during welding or burning operations from a previous job. It was recommended that fall arresting devices be periodically inspected for damage by a qualified person, that faulty equipment be immediately removed from service, and that personal protective equipment be able to withstand the harshest conditions to which they may be subjected on any job.
• Content Notes:
  Publication date provided by the authoring office. There is no publication date indicated on the resource.
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Construction Industry Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Construction-industry Construction-Search Construction-workers FACE-89-21 OSHA Region 3 Safety-equipment Safety-practices Traumatic-injuries
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Construction ; Falls ; Hispanic - Construction ; Falls - Construction - Commercial ; Falls - Construction - Scaffolds
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  NIOSH (In-House)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFACE8921
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  3 pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00199109
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB91-212811
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 89-21, 1989 Apr ; :1-4
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1989
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  23 - Construction - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1988/12/19
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:bf964d08be61c509910251c173908c265cdb11d1735190afe2b899d682cc13c9fa416b202d533151f683cd2521360cbe6383349aa260ca5f555893ae9cd480bd
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/164377/cdc_164377_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 254.01 KB ]