Construction worker is crushed by steel beams when overloaded nylon slings fail

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  California Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Program (CA/FACE) ; California. Department of Health Services. Occupational Health Branch
• Description:
  A 24-year-old male construction worker died after steel beams fell on him when the nylon slings that were carrying them failed. The decedent and a co-worker were unloading a delivery truck that contained approximately 42,000 pounds of structural steel. A 450-ton crane on site was assisting with the unloading process. The lifting procedure was discussed with the decedent and co-worker's senior supervisor on-site. The first and second lifts were done without incident. The senior supervisor then left the job site to perform other responsibilities. The construction workers rigged the rest of the steel and picked it up as one load, instead of the three separate loads as planned. No consideration was given to the rated capacity of the slings, devices to protect the nylon slings from the sharp edges of the steel, or a tag line to guide the steel being lifted. The first and second loads weighed approximately 8,700 pounds apiece. The third load was approximately 24,000 pounds. The lift was near its maximum radius when the nylon slings failed, dropping its load on top of the decedent. The CA/FACE investigator determined that, in order to prevent future occurrences, employers, as part of their Injury and Illness Prevention Program, should: 1. Ensure that nylon slings are not overloaded. 2. Ensure chafing material is used to protect nylon slings from sharp edges. 3. Ensure that all elevated loads are controlled with tag lines. 4. Ensure crane operators making lifts are aware of the rating capacity of the rigging devices used to lift the load.
• Content Notes:
  Publication Date provided by FACE program
  
  not printed on the report.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Construction Industry Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Safety Management Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Construction-equipment Construction-industry Construction-workers Equipment-operators Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 9 Protective-equipment Protective-measures Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Construction ; Hispanic - Construction ; Machine (All) ; Machine - Construction
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE00CA001
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  4 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20027232
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2007-111616
• 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 00CA001, 2000 Aug ; :1-4
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2000
• Performing Organization:
  California Department of Health Services
• 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:b7d9583941ee2a9694547cc846fcbcc6c6049180a92718979e46a8512d89070b15c40897651f5d8b0b684bc209836875109025d5e06c6ab1b1849fd49c170946
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/168961/cdc_168961_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 50.84 KB ]