Two Construction Workers Fatally Crushed when Cement Formwork Collapsed

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  New York State Fatality Assessment & Control Evaluation Program (NY FACE) ; New York (State). Department of Health. Bureau of Occupational Health and Injury Prevention
• Description:
  On December 2, 2013, a 53-year-old construction laborer (Victim I) and a 50-year-old concrete pump operator (Victim II) suffered fatal crushing injuries when formwork collapsed during concrete placement at a construction site. The concrete piece being constructed was an aqueduct mockup. On the morning of the incident, the workers were pouring concrete to form the left and right buttress sections and the buttress formwork on the right side collapsed. The right buttress formwork had a retaining wall that was composed of a lower vertical face and an upper inclined face. At the time of the incident, Victim I and Victim II were working from a platform abutting the retaining wall. At around 12:30 pm when the freshly poured concrete was approximately 10 feet high, workers heard loud thudding noises as the retaining wall and the work platform collapsed. A 911 call was placed immediately and EMTs arrived at the site within minutes. Victim 1 was trapped underneath the formwork and pronounced dead on the scene. Victim II was also trapped underneath the formwork but rescued by other workers who used a forklift to lift the formwork to free him. Victim II died in a hospital nine days later from crushing injuries. Post incident investigations identified several discrepancies between what the formwork design specified and how the formwork was constructed. The formwork deviated from the design specifications in the type, size, and number of anchors to be installed. Pipe braces and hold-down brackets indicated on the drawings were not installed. The formwork did not have adequate capacity to resist the horizontal fluid forces and lacked any mechanism to resist the uplift force on the formwork during concrete placement. The formwork failed due to a combination of mechanisms including formwork uplift followed by wash-out of the wood base platform, vertical drop and collapse of the support wall, and shear/tension failure of the anchoring system. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS: 1. Formwork did not have adequate design capacity and mechanisms to resist the loads and forces on the structure during concrete placement. 2. Formwork was not constructed according to design specifications. 3. Changes made during formwork construction were not approved by the design engineer. 4. Formwork was not braced and tied down according to drawings. 5. Formwork was not inspected and certified to meet design specifications prior to concrete placement. 6. Signs of formwork distress during concrete placement were not adequately evaluated. 7. Competent person was not on site during concrete placement. 8. Formwork drawings were not available on site. KEY RECOMMENDATIONS: 1. Employers should ensure that concrete formwork has adequate designed capacity and mechanisms to resist loads and forces during concrete placement. 2. Employers should ensure that concrete formwork is constructed strictly following design specifications. 3. Employers should ensure that concrete formwork is braced and tied down adequately to stay in alignment and retain stability. 4. Employers should inspect formwork at each stage of construction as well as prior to and during concrete placement to ensure formwork quality. 5. Employers should ensure that a competent person is on site during formwork construction and concrete placement. 6. Employers should establish and implement a standard operating procedure on how to identify, document, report, and resolve deviations from design on formwork. 7. Employers should hold a formwork plan review meeting involving both design and field construction personnel prior to start of formwork construction. 8. Employers should conduct a job hazard analysis and provide worker training on risks and hazards associated with formwork construction and concrete placement. 9. Employers should keep concrete formwork drawings easily accessible to construction crew.
• Content Notes:
  Date supplied by FACE Program. Publication date not indicated on resource.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Case Reports Construction Industry Construction Materials Fungi Mortality Occupational Health Quality Control Safety Safety Management Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Anchoring Aqueduct Author Keywords: Concrete Formwork Buoyancy Force Case-studies Collapse Zones Concrete Placement Concretes Construction Construction Equipment Construction Materials Construction Workers Crushing Injury Equipment Design Failure Analysis Fatalities Force Formwork Collapse Formwork Failure Formwork Uplift Hazards Inclined Support Wall Industrial Design Injuries Injury-prevention Job Analysis Load Monitoring Molds Mortality-data OSHA Region 2 Quality Assurance Safety-education Safety-practices Safety-programs Structural Analysis Structural Design Structural Engineering Structural Failure Traumatic-injuries Work-environment Work-practices

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Construction
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE13NY080
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  New York ; OSHA Region 2
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-13
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20050407
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2018-100073
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 13NY080, 2017 Sep ; :1-13
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2017
• Performing Organization:
  New York State Department of Health/Health Research Incorporated
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  23 - Construction - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2005/07/01
• End Date:
  2026/06/30
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d90e3ab23bba5f5f5c72fe50c960ad8ad18e1d2cc45bd722d9b0d84fbf81d92a85f9ae15eb915740385c70bb0974bbcaff75f91e654f148ad2adc9495f91f9bf
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/164992/cdc_164992_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.06 MB ]