Tower Hand Dies After 230-Foot Fall From Communications Tower--North Carolina

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program
• Description:
  On November 13, 1998, a 40-year-old male tower hand (the victim) died after falling 230 feet from a 250-foot communications tower. Office of the North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Administration (NCOSHA) notified the Division of Safety Research (DSR) of this fatality. DSR offered technical assistance and on December 15, 1998, a safety specialist from DSR conducted an investigation of the incident. The incident was reviewed with the NCOSHA compliance officer assigned to the case, the tower-owner representative, and the county sheriff and coroner offices. The site was visited, and photographs were obtained during the investigation. NIOSH investigators concluded that, to prevent similar occurrences, employers should: provide workers with 100% fall-protection system compatible with the tasks to be performed, instruct employees in the proper use of the system and equipment and ensure their use
  
  provide workers with a proper work-positioning system, instruct workers with a proper use and limitations of the system, and ensure its use
  
  develop, implement, and enforce a comprehensive written safety program which includes, but is not limited to, a commitment to 100% tie-off and written procedures for employees to implement 100% fall protection
  
  additionally, manufacturers of tower components and tower owners, should consider installing fall-protection fixtures on tower components during fabrication or erection that would facilitate the use of fall-protection systems.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Construction Industry Occupational Health Safety Safety Management
• Keywords:
  Accident-prevention Construction-Search Construction-workers OSHA Region 4 Safety-practices Safety-programs Traumatic-injuries
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Construction ; Falls
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  NIOSH (In-House)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFACE9901
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  North Carolina ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  10 pages
• Contributor:
  Casini, Virgil J. ; Castillo, Dawn N. ; Higgins, Doloris N.
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20000465
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB99-172934
• Citation:
  Morgantown, : U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1999
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  23 - Construction - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1998/11/13
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d8216c942cac609908a6db556fabea5856dd5d74b1226952c02cc769f56e523b5e122b9817bc58a9c4f72af4f69059a6de68ca567521d2c94249af9f447134d6
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/167386/cdc_167386_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 568.07 KB ]