Carpenter Dies After Falling 10 Feet from a Step Ladder/Porch Floor - South Carolina: FACE 94-12

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program
• Description:
  This report concerned the death of a 37-year-old male carpenter who fell 10 feet, striking his head on a concrete block retaining wall. The employer was a house framing contractor that had been in business for 19 years, employing five workers, three of whom were carpenters. There was a written safety program, but the program was incomplete regarding specific guardrail requirements. The victim had been employed for 2 days prior to the accident. On the day of the accident, workers proceeded to different parts of the house to clean up. The victim was last observed standing part way up an 8-foot-high fiberglass step ladder on a second-floor porch. The ladder was positioned with the ladder steps facing toward the open side of the porch, about 1 foot from its edge. He was using the ladder to access the porch ceiling rafters, affixing pieces of wood to the rafters in preparation for hanging sheetrock. The victim either fell from the ladder or fell getting off the ladder and struck his head on the retaining wall. He was found unconscious but breathing. Two days later, he was pronounced brain dead, and he died after life support was discontinued. The cause of death was listed as subdural hemorrhage. Recommendations included providing adequate guarding for open sided floors, platforms, and runways
  
  reviewing and revising existing safety programs
  
  conducting scheduled and unscheduled worksite inspections
  
  and encouraging workers to actively participate in workplace safety.
• Subjects:
  • Accidents, Occupational
  • Accidental Falls
  • Construction Industry
  • Fatal Outcome
  • Nervous System
  • Occupational Health
  • Safety
• Keywords:
  • OSHA Region 3
  • FACE-94-12
  • Head-injuries
  • Accident-analysis
  • Construction-workers
  • Traumatic-injuries
  • Ladders
  • Construction-Search
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  All ; Construction ; Falls ; Falls - Construction - Residential ; Falls - Construction - Ladders
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  NIOSH (In-House)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFACE9412
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  South 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:
  3 pdf pages
• Volume:
  1994
• Issue:
  12
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00221242
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB94-218211
• 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:
  1994
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  23 - Construction - (NAICS 2022)
• Start Date:
  1994/03/23
• Resource Number:
  FACE 94-12
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/167472/cdc_167472_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 275.29 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:efae76b0aaf0ef6356b0b330a6fcc3c408ba51cb68ae2182fa187abf5bb0aef5b59516810fe63fdf6f8d2c7cd68b4c7f3955fe86133f628b9b6e3e22bc51b8d4