Carpenter’s Helper Dies After Falling Through Stairwell Opening–Virginia

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program
• Description:
  The case of a 35-year-old male carpenter's helper who died following a fall into a stairwell opening in Virginia was reviewed. The victim was 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighed 235 pounds. The employer had been subcontracted to frame up a one-story private residence. The residence was to have a full basement. The victim was working on the floor, handing sheets of plywood to men working on the roof. Adjacent to the victim's work area was a stairwell opening which was enclosed on three sides by 2 by 4-inch stud walls and on the fourth side by a door. There were 14-inch openings between studs. The men on the roof heard the victim fall through the stairwell opening but did not observe what caused the fall. The size of the victim prohibited him from inadvertently falling face forward or sideways through the 14-inch openings. It is thought that he either stepped between two studs to look into or to cross over the stairwell opening. He may have tripped on the floorboard or caught the hammer hanging from his tool belt on one of the studs, causing him to lose his balance. It was recommended that all floor or roof openings be guarded, and that workers be trained to recognize hazards at the worksites.
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Construction Industry Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Construction-industry Construction-Search Construction-workers FACE-92-36 OSHA Region 3 Safety-research Traumatic-injuries
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Construction ; Falls ; Falls - Construction - Residential
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  NIOSH (In-House)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFACE9236
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Virginia ; OSHA Region 3
• 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
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00211758
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB93-159309
• 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:
  1993
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  23 - Construction - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1992/09/04
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6db6ee7e9632206e123439e13f4de4b49b3010e12f823689232f724e456fad11fee6d875fe0cc64275227c5194f8f05a34b33aa08935d576bcf5060b90df1d28
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/167535/cdc_167535_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 249.65 KB ]