Electrician Apprentice Dies Following a 55-foot Fall From a Roof

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Wisconsin Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Program (Wisconsin FACE) ; Wisconsin. Division of Public Health. Bureau of Occupational Health
• Description:
  A 21-year-old male electrician apprentice (the victim) died of injuries received after falling 55 feet from a roof. The victim was working with a journeyman electrician to install conduit and wiring for a surveillance camera on the flat roof of a hospital. An eighteen-inch high ledge surrounds the roof edge, and a wire rope guard railing was located 20 feet from each roof edge. The victim was standing outside the guard railing and was using a reel pulling tape to pull de-energized electrical wire through a conduit. There were no witnesses to the incident, and it appears he inadvertently stepped to the edge of the roof and fell 55 feet to the ground. The electrician was replacing the cover on a pull box about 40 feet away from where the victim had been standing and looked for him in that location. He noticed that the electrical wires were over the edge of the building, went to the edge to look over, and saw the victim lying near the base of the building. The victim was moved to the hospital emergency room, where he was pronounced dead of massive head trauma. The Wisconsin FACE investigator concluded that, to prevent similar occurrences, employers should: 1. Evaluate their current safety program and incorporate specific training procedures emphasizing the importance of recognizing and avoiding hazards in the workplace. These procedures should include, but not be limited to, conducting hazard evaluations before initiating work at a job site and implementing appropriate controls. 2. Ensure that fall protection equipment is provided and used by workers where the potential for a fall from an elevation exists. 3. Conduct scheduled and unscheduled site visits to evaluate field compliance with company safety rules and procedures.
• Content Notes:
  Publication Date provided by FACE program
  
  not printed on the report.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Electric Injuries Electricity Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Safety Management Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Electrical-equipment Electrical-hazards Electrical-industry Electrical-workers Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 5 Personal-protection Personal-protective-equipment Protective-equipment Protective-measures Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Safety-programs Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Construction ; Falls ; Falls - Construction - Commercial ; Falls - Construction - Roofs
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE93WI254
• 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:
  1-4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20028063
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2009-102452
• 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 93WI254, 1994 Oct ; :1-4
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1995
• 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-512:4d13aa4032600674b291cc055467120b2124eaf9123f7c80d4c9cd79a67efc82d096b6cb808757f35fac2a3ea4ee2fa258ce22bee88b48e3109bae97da83c1b4
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/166931/cdc_166931_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 19.55 KB ]