Construction Laborer Dies After Falling Through Temporary Bridge “Catch” Platform, 75 Feet To Ground

Details

• Personal Author:
  Fagliano, Jerald ; Lefkowitz, Daniel
• Corporate Authors:
  New Jersey Fatality Assessment & Control Evaluation Project (NJ FACE) ; New Jersey. Department of Health. Public Health Services Branch. Division of Epidemiology, Environmental and Occupational Health. Occupational Health Surveillance Unit
• Description:
  A construction laborer fell 75 feet to the ground after falling through a temporary wooden platform during a bridge renovation project. The worker was not equipped with fall protection, and no fall protection system was in place. The wooden platform, also referred to as a "catch" platform, was intended to collect debris generated by work on the bridge deck. However, it was not uncommon for workers to use the platform as a walking or working surface. The victim fell through the temporary wooden platform immediately after he stepped down from a steel structural I-beam onto one of the wooden planks, which broke into two large pieces. The road and bridge construction company was working on a bridge located on a major New Jersey highway when the fatal event occurred. The company employed union laborers for this large-scale, multi-year construction project. NJ FACE investigators recommend following these safety requirements and guidelines to prevent similar incidents: 1. Personnel working at heights of six feet or greater should have effective fall protection and prevention. 2. Temporary surfaces that are accessed and used by personnel must be designed, maintained, and inspected to assure that they are safe. 3. Surfaces that are not designed for worker access use must be clearly identified and entry to those areas must be prevented. 4. Wooden planks or other materials used for temporary work platforms and the supports that hold them in place must be designed and made of material that can support at least four times the maximum intended weight. 5. Catch designs and/or construction procedures that hold individual planks together to prevent shifting of the planks should be employed. 6. Employees must be trained to report any problems with wooden decking planks that might be damaged or planks that have their integrity compromised. Companies must designate a person to actively survey the planks and promptly replace any planks that have compromised integrity. 7. A safety and health plan based on a job hazard analysis should be developed by the employer and followed for each communications tower where workers are assigned tasks.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Construction Industry Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident Analysis Accident Prevention Construction Workers Injury Prevention OSHA Region 2 Personal Protective Equipment Road Construction Safety Equipment Traumatic Injuries
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Construction ; Falls ; Falls - Construction - Commercial ; Prevention through Design (PtD)
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE07NJ077
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  New Jersey ; OSHA Region 2
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-10
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20040156
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2013-100033
• 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 07NJ077, 2011 Jun ; :1-10
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2011
• Performing Organization:
  New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services
• 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:f3f07e3504285074924c5815941b5cde7021ed200a3a24433279042a63ec55db3e2049f091dedfa22518b1946817b8226261be83f2e9c2ef53641c13a5444d16
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/165230/cdc_165230_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 128.35 KB ]