Air Conditioning Worker Dies After Falling From a Fixed Ladder

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  New Jersey Fatality Assessment & Control Evaluation Project (NJ FACE) ; New Jersey. Department of Health and Senior Services. Occupational Health Service
• Description:
  On July 22, 1997, a 38-year-old air-conditioning service technician was killed after falling from a fixed industrial ladder leading to a roof hatch. The incident occurred at a clothing company warehouse where the victim and his co-workers were servicing the air-conditioning units on the roof of the building. After arriving at the worksite, the victim had to climb and descend the ladder (which was fixed to the top of an interior stairwell) several times to get supplies from his truck. Shortly before 2:00 p.m. the victim descended to the ground and tied a rope to a tank of nitrogen gas. Planning to pull the compressed gas up to the roof, he took a regulator valve from his truck and entered the stairwell to climb the ladder to the roof hatch. His co-workers reported hearing the metal regulator fall and found the victim lying on the concrete at the bottom of the stairwell, about 25 feet below the hatch. NJDHSS FACE investigators concluded that, to prevent similar incidents in the future, these safety guidelines should be followed: 1. Building owners, employers, and employees should ensure that ladders are properly constructed/erected before using them. 2. Employers should conduct a job hazard analysis of all work activities with the participation of the workers. 3. Employers should develop, implement, and enforce a comprehensive employee safety program.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Occupational Injuries Safety Safety Management Staff Development Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-potential Accident-prevention Injuries Injury-prevention Ladders Occupational-accidents Occupational-hazards Occupational-safety-programs OSHA Region 2 Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-practices Safety-programs Training Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-environment Work-practices Workplace-monitoring

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Construction ; Falls ; Prevention through Design (PtD) ; Falls - Construction - Ladders
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE97NJ059
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  New Jersey ; OSHA Region 2
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  7 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20026657
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2013-100017
• 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 97NJ059, 1998 May ; :1-7
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1998
• Performing Organization:
  New Jersey Department of Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  23 - Construction - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1991/09/30
• End Date:
  2005/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7ccbe6e4bd6e131acdd58596e1e41e1b4452bc452635c96d71ddcfc7ff6a855e94aa137e42c7a076e9d152dc6e7d8c85111b715f35bbf16e01e69f217a0b3365
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/170032/cdc_170032_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 71.04 KB ]