Roofer’s family member helping at worksite dies after falling through skylight

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Oregon Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (Program) (OR-FACE) ; Oregon Health & Science University. Oregon Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology (CROET)
• Description:
  A 19-year-old family member of a self-employed roofing contractor died when he fell through a skylight to a concrete floor 35 feet below. The victim was assisting the roofer repair water leaks on the flat roof of a commercial warehouse. The incident occurred at the completion of the two-day project. The victim was walking backwards to roll up a torch hose when he apparently tripped or stepped into the skylight. The acrylic plastic domed skylight shattered under his weight and the victim fell approximately 35 feet to the concrete floor. The victim's father immediately called for assistance and notified emergency services. The victim was transported to a local emergency room where he died a short time later. The OR FACE team was notified by local news media reports on January 28, 2003. Contact was made with both the building owner and the roofing contractor. The roofing contractor was interviewed by phone. The building owner declined an onsite investigation of the incident scene. The OR FACE investigator visited the street location without accessing the building or the roof (incident location), on February 5, 2003. This report is based on the interview with the employer and the onsite walk around of the building. Based on the findings of the investigation, to prevent similar occurrences, employers should: 1. Identify and guard known and potential safety hazards to all workers or visitors who access the work site. 2. Ensure that buildings with plastic (acrylic) domed skylights are retrofitted with fall prevention (i.e., steel grills) to ensure that the possibility of catastrophic falls is reduced or in the alternative use warning systems to alert workers of an immediate hazard to their life/safety. 3. Employers should implement site-specific safety programs to address and reduce work related risks through the integration of safe work practices into routine work activities.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Construction Industry Occupational Health Safety Safety Management Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Construction Construction-equipment Construction-industry Construction-workers Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 10 Roofers Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Safety-programs Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Construction ; Falls ; Falls - Construction - Roofs
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE03OR001
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Oregon ; OSHA Region 10
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  6 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20026947
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2006-112880
• 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 03OR001, 2003 Aug ; :1-6
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2003
• Performing Organization:
  Oregon Department of Human Services
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  23 - Construction - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2002/09/01
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f64b8a5cb8ee4ceb356dacf0c4c002407b160b96f60ce1dcf909d67af0d11d0b02735eb6bb4933abff48a957857d7d91e35833b89d22e77150640a1046e1e51e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/169078/cdc_169078_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 187.61 KB ]