Sheet Metal Worker Dies After Falling 45 Feet From Air Duct

Details

• Personal Author:
  Brown, Margee ; Parker, David L.
• Corporate Authors:
  Minnesota Fatality Assessment & Control Evaluation Program (MN FACE) ; Minnesota. Department of Health
• Description:
  A 43-year-old worker died of injuries sustained when he fell approximately 45 feet at a commercial construction site. The victim who was a member of the local sheet metal workers' union, was employed by a mechanical company that was subcontracted on the project. On the day of the incident the victim had been installing metal air ducts. Prior to falling, the victim and two co-workers were working from a scaffold that was 45 feet above the ground. The two coworkers had been working on one end of the scaffold which was near a large vertical air duct known as a riser. For reasons that remain unclear, the victim climbed over the scaffold's guardrail and onto a horizontal section of the air duct . The victim was not wearing or using any type of fall protection equipment. The victim fell from the air duct he had climbed onto, to the floor of the building. Emergency medical personnel were immediately called and the victim was transported to a local hospital where he died one and one-half hours later. MN FACE investigators concluded that, in order to reduce the likelihood of similar occurrences, the following guidelines should be followed: 1. employers should ensure that workers always work from an approved safe work platform when working at elevation
  
  2. employers should ensure that workers follow established safe work procedures
  
  and 3. employers should design, develop, and implement a comprehensive safety program.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Construction Industry Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Safety Management Ventilation Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Construction Construction-industry Construction-workers Heating-systems Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 5 Personal-protective-equipment Protective-equipment Protective-measures Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Safety-programs Scaffolds Traumatic-injuries Ventilation-systems Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Construction ; Falls ; Falls - Construction - Commercial ; Falls - Construction - Scaffolds
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE99MN015
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Minnesota ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-6
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20027628
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2010-115348
• 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 99MN015, 1999 Jul ; :1-6
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1999
• Performing Organization:
  Minnesota Department of Health
• 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:e87d18983a79de76d6e1e002b1ea0340d63ddd5a3bf900c958d0b05ba5503ab01e765a63f437beebe156171706ccd51732e6a7f96fe403c49524b441e3ab155b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/167094/cdc_167094_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 73.97 KB ]