Laborer Compressed between the Top Rail of a Scissor Lift Guardrail and a Steel Beam - Massachusetts

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Massachusetts Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Project (Massachusetts FACE) ; Massachusetts. Department of Public Health
• Description:
  On December 5, 2013, a 37-year-old male laborer (victim) was fatally asphyxiated when his head and neck region was compressed between a steel beam and the top rail of a scissor lift. The victim was working from a raised scissor lift to secure a large tarpaulin (tarp) to a steel column on a construction site. The tarp became caught on the scissor lift's joystick control causing the lift to rise up further unexpectedly and resulting in the compression injuries. Workers from another company found the victim when they went to check on him. A call was placed for emergency medical services (EMS). The local police and EMS arrived at the incident location within minutes. The victim was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. Contributing factors identified in this investigation included the tarpaulin being draped across the raised lift's guardrail, working alone from an elevating work platform, and the bar guard design not preventing the tarp from becoming entangled and engaging the joystick. The Massachusetts FACE Program concluded that to prevent similar occurrences in the future, employers should: 1. Develop standard operating procedures (SOPs) for installing tarpaulins from scissor lifts that includes never draping tarpaulins over or across the lift's guardrail
  
  and 2. Develop, implement and enforce a policy that prevents employees from working alone when using elevating work platforms. In addition, equipment manufacturers should: 3. Perform comprehensive product assessments based on Prevention through Design (PtD) concept to identify potential hazards and then eliminate these hazards through design changes.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Construction Industry Morbidity Mortality Occupational Health Safety Safety Management Staff Development Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-potential Accident-prevention Construction Construction-workers Injuries Injury-prevention Morbidity-rates Mortality-rates OSHA Region 1 Safety-education Safety-measures Safety-practices Safety-programs Training Traumatic-injuries Work-environment Work-operations

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Construction ; Machine (All) ; Machine - Construction ; Foreign Born Workers ; Prevention through Design (PtD)
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE13MA032
• 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:
  1-9
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20046892
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2016-100053
• 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 13MA032, 2015 May ; :1-9
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• 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-512:7fee7c5e484461ace2bb7d528cfc960ee7b0fe7da865abdfed3b28ee2930d1fe06d9217e12ab5a205da38b49d39ab0816d9c76d478eba0b92ed8dabd98598966
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/165042/cdc_165042_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 484.70 KB ]