Hispanic Laborer Dies After Falling Through Roof of Old Building

Details

• Personal Author:
  Anderson, Henry A. ; Islam, KM Monirul ; Lins, Meredith ; Sieger, Thomas
• Corporate Authors:
  Wisconsin Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Program (Wisconsin FACE) ; Wisconsin. Division of Public Health. Bureau of Occupational Health
• Description:
  On August 7, 2003, a 29-year-old Hispanic laborer (the victim) fell through the roof of an old building during renovation. The crew, including the victim, was working for an asbestos abatement company at the time of the incident. On-site were the general contractor (Company A), a salvage company (Company B) and the asbestos abatement company (Company C). The owners of the building contracted with the asbestos abatement company to begin work at this particular site. This was the abatement company's first day on the job and they were anticipating doing window, not roof work. When the asbestos abatement crew arrived at the work site, the abatement company's supervisor asked Company A what they would like them to do. The supervisor of Company A told them they would like them to work on the roof. The abatement company owner knew there were weak areas in the roof, but because he thought his company was scheduled to work on windows, he planned to take the supporting aluminum picks to the work site the following day before the roof work began. The abatement company's owner assigned his company's supervisor to be in charge of the abatement crew in his absence. The victim was working on the badly deteriorated roof and fell through. Adequate safeguards were not in place at the time of the incident. When the victim fell, many workers heard him, but workers from company B were the first to reach him. They found him lying on the cement floor inside the building. They notified emergency medical services (EMS) and the victim was transported to a local hospital where he died approximately two hours later. The FACE investigator concluded that, to prevent similar occurrences, employers should: 1. ensure that supervisors are trained to recognize hazards and have the authority to take action and refuse to accept a job when conditions are unsafe
  
  2. ensure that a protocol with a standard operating procedure is in place for working on roofs
  
  3. enforce a comprehensive written safety and health program that includes, but is not limited to, a fall protection plan that protects workers while working on a roof and, at minimum, meets OSHA standards for fall protection and for retraining workers on these standards
  
  4. ensure that all workers who are part of a multilingual workforce comprehend and follow training instructions in safe work procedures for all tasks to which they are assigned.
  
  
• Content Notes:
  Publication Date provided by FACE program
  
  not printed on the report.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Asbestos Construction Industry Construction Materials Inorganic Chemicals Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Asbestos-removal Asbestos-workers Construction-materials Construction-workers Demolition-industry Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 5 Personal-protection Personal-protective-equipment Protective-equipment Safety-education Safety-equipment Traumatic-injuries Work-practices

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Construction ; Falls ; Hispanic - Construction ; Falls - Construction - Commercial ; Falls - Construction - Roofs
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE03WI048
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Wisconsin ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-8
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20029473
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2006-105511
• 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 03WI048, 2006 Jan ; :1-8
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2006
• Performing Organization:
  Wisconsin Department of Health & Family Services
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  23 - Construction - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1991/09/30
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:65f5941decb33fb5d390126382b062c0fb40b5646d26ade5d4b016a73a0efb7dc6565bb14ff67fe9d10f72f8a682a9a9822588a4b93176c95449891d855e1eee
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/166358/cdc_166358_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 153.35 KB ]