Laborer Fatally Injured After Falling from a Home Under Construction – Massachusetts

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Massachusetts Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Project (Massachusetts FACE) ; Massachusetts. Department of Public Health
• Description:
  On January 14, 2016 a 22-year-old male laborer/carpenter (victim) employed by a residential contractor was fatally injured after falling from a single family house under construction. While on the top plate of a studded exterior second story wall, the victim lost his balance and fell approximately 24 feet to the frozen ground below. The fall was not witnessed by any of the co-workers onsite, but the site foreman heard a noise and while trying to determine what the noise was he found the victim on the ground. The site foreman placed a call for emergency medical services (EMS). EMS and local police and state police arrived within minutes. The victim was med-flighted to a regional trauma center where he was in the intensive care unit and was pronounced dead the next day. Contributing factors identified in this investigation included: employees were not protected from fall hazards and employees were not provided training. The Massachusetts FACE Program concluded that to prevent similar occurrences in the future, employers should: 1. Provide fall protection for all employees exposed to fall hazards of six feet or more
  
  2. Provide all employees with training on fall protection and other equipment such as ladders and scaffolding that will be used to complete tasks
  
  and 3.Develop, implement, and enforce a safety and health program that addresses hazard recognition and avoidance of unsafe conditions.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accidental Falls Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Construction Industry Occupational Health Safety Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Accident Analysis Accident Potential Accident Prevention Construction Construction Workers Fall Protection Falls Injuries Injury Prevention OSHA Region 1 Safety Measures Safety Practices Training Traumatic Injuries

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Construction ; Falls ; Falls - Construction - Residential ; Foreign Born Workers ; Falls - Construction - Roofs
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE16MA001
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-8
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20050329
• 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 16MA001, 2017 Apr ; :1-8
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2017
• Performing Organization:
  Massachusetts State Department of Public Health
• 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:cea97d1003eea5983c7aa0cfd31e16d9e7d658291bda6cae4493c4b5014afdd014914634a3cb88b458487806475d3aa923d239a8bcdfcac56952c4230cc9ac13
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/164993/cdc_164993_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 425.25 KB ]