Hotel Custodian Dies From Injuries Sustained During Fall Down Stairs

Details

• Personal Author:
  Boyle, Debora ; Parker, David L. ; Wahl, George
• Corporate Authors:
  Minnesota Fatality Assessment & Control Evaluation Program (MN FACE) ; Minnesota. Department of Health
• Description:
  The victim was working alone at the time that the unwitnessed incident occurred. As a result, this report is based upon information obtained during the site investigation interview and an inspection of the incident site. A 33-year-old male hotel custodian (victim) died from injuries sustained when he fell down a stairway. Guests staying in a second floor room requested a roll-away bed which the victim was asked to deliver to the room. The victim went to a first floor storage room and obtained one of the roll-away beds. He apparently rolled it down a hotel room hallway until he reached the bottom of a stairway that led to the second floor. After reaching the bottom of the stairway, the victim carried the roll-away bed up the stairs. Since he was working alone, it was not known how far up the stairway he carried it. At some point along the stairway or after he reached the top landing, he lost his balance and fell down the stairway. He was discovered by hotel guests shortly after he had been told to deliver the roll-away bed to a second floor room. He was found lying on his back at the bottom of the stairway with his feet resting on the first step of the stairway. The roll-away bed was lying almost directly on top of the victim's chest. Emergency medical personnel were called and arrived at the scene shortly after the victim was discovered. The victim was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly after he was brought into the hospital. MN FACE investigators concluded that to reduce the likelihood of similar occurrences, employers should: 1. ensure that employees do not move items from one building level to another level unless absolutely necessary
  
  and 2. ensure that more than one employee is involved when large, bulky, or heavy items must be manually moved from one building level to another.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Maintenance Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Safety Management Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Injuries Injury-prevention Maintenance-workers OSHA Region 5 Protective-equipment Protective-measures Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Service-industries Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Falls
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE95MN004
• 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:
  1-5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20027458
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2012-110731
• 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 95MN004, 1995 Oct ; :1-5
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1996
• Performing Organization:
  Minnesota Department of Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  72 - Accommodation and Food Services - (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-512:521616b87429d0de8d47f9b343675b0acb6730c62ca471c383893cc276f10d17a19aeb4a4efff2ddfc0a1489d2af85e622763adfceed544ae50497fbdf6e2eff
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/167181/cdc_167181_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 46.54 KB ]