Welder Dies from Fall off Rigging

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Michigan Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (Project) (MIFACE) ; Michigan State University. Department of Medicine. Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• Description:
  On Saturday, November 22, 2003, a 44-year-old male welder fell 24 feet to a concrete floor at a metal stamping plant. He was a general welder in the plant's facility engineering department. The welder who fell, a co-worker who was an apprentice welder, and another worker were preparing the site for the installation of the top of a press, the crown, onto a large press. The crown was to be raised by a crane to a position in front of the press where it would be positioned onto a hydraulic lifting apparatus that traveled on rails located on either side of the press. The crown would then be raised by the lifting apparatus, rolled along the rails across the top of the press and set into place. Two I-beams in front of the press formed a bridge between the rails the lifting apparatus traveled along. The decedent and his co-workers were welding a steel plate to the top of the two I-beams to stabilize them to prevent them from twisting so they could support the weight of the crown as it was placed on the lifting apparatus. The decedent had tack-welded the steel plate onto the I-beam next to the platform he was standing on. He was preparing to tack-weld the far side of the plate onto the second I-beam that was closest to the press. The apprentice welder with whom he was working saw him start to climb over a guardrail onto the top of the plate to reach the far side of the steel plate, but then turned away to put some equipment away. When he next looked back in that direction, he did not see the decedent. The decedent was not wearing any type of fall protection. He had fallen from the steel plate next to the left side of the press. When the apprentice welder realized that the decedent had fallen to the press floor below, he activated the 911 Emergency Call Box to notify the company's central emergency team, the plant nurse, and the plant emergency response team. The company's central emergency ambulance and team arrived within 4 minutes of receiving the call. The city's emergency medical team transported him to the hospital where he was placed in the trauma center. He was in a coma until he died approximately one month later, on December 22, 2003. 1. Management and employees must work together to develop a plant culture that will not allow actions that might result in injury or death to be tolerated. 2. Appropriate safety procedures must be followed to prevent injuries and fatalities. 3. Employers must conduct a thorough pre-work analysis of facility construction work to ensure that it is correctly identified regarding type of construction and types of hazards and that workers with appropriate training are assigned to the work. 4. Employers must ensure that those in a supervisory position are knowledgeable regarding appropriate safe work practices, so that they will be able to recognize if employees are effectively protected or exhibiting behavior that would indicate that further training or retraining was necessary.
• Content Notes:
  Publication Date provided by FACE program
  
  not printed on the report.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Safety Management Staff Development Welding
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-potential Accident-prevention Injuries Injury-prevention Occupational-safety-programs OSHA Region 5 Personal-protection Personal-protective-equipment Protective-measures Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-practices Safety-programs Training Traumatic-injuries Welders Work-analysis Work-performance Work-practices

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Falls
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE03MI179
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Michigan ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  9 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20026936
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2006-112822
• 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 03MI179, 2004 Nov ; :1-9
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2005
• Performing Organization:
  Michigan State University
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  31-33 - Manufacturing - (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-512:1a36a4055b191b86761b72f36d4bc7e3e9cc1b19b4a405401918c4e6247a108f16e2c0969c20b7e329bdfc170f89250c4b654780071ede722b16a4d180591dfc
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/169086/cdc_169086_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 615.08 KB ]