Laborer Dies After Falling 30 Feet Through a Fire-vent Skylight

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 January 15, 1996, a 57-year-old day laborer was critically injured after falling 30 feet through a plastic dome fire-vent while working on a warehouse roof. The victim and 16 other workers had been hired as temporary laborers to shovel snow from the roof of a large warehouse following a blizzard. On the roof were a number of plastic-domed fire-vents, which closely resemble skylights but are designed to melt away in a fire and allow smoke to escape from the building. At about 1:40 p.m. on their third day of work, the laborers were shoveling snow when the victim decided to take a break. He sat down on the edge of one of the fire-vents, which collapsed under his weight. The victim went through the plastic dome, falling 30 feet to the warehouse floor below. He was airlifted to the local trauma center, where he died of his injuries the next day. NJDOH FACE investigators concluded that, in order to prevent similar incidents in the future, these safety guidelines should be followed: 1. Read and follow the recommendations in the attached publication, NIOSH Alert: Preventing Worker Deaths and Injuries From Falls Through Skylights and Roof Openings. 2. Be aware of the OSHA regulations requiring the guarding of fire-vents and other roof openings.
• Subjects:
  • Accident Prevention
  • Accidents
  • Accidents, Occupational
  • Occupational Health
  • Safety
  • Safety Management
  • Staff Development
  • Workplace
• Keywords:
  • Accident-analysis
  • Accident-potential
  • Accident-prevention
  • Accidents
  • Injuries
  • Injury-prevention
  • Safety-education
  • Safety-equipment
  • Safety-practices
  • Safety-measures
  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Construction ; Falls ; Hispanic ; Falls - Construction - Commercial ; Prevention through Design (PtD) ; Temporary Worker
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE96NJ003
• 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:20026624
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2013-100025
• 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 96NJ003, 1996 Jun ; :1-6
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1996
• Performing Organization:
  New Jersey Department of Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  31-33 - Manufacturing - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1991/09/30
• End Date:
  2005/08/31
• Resource Number:
  FACE-96NJ003 ; FACE 96-NJ-003-01
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/170054/cdc_170054_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 28.25 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:9a8cead51ab2e8365cbd3f60bf2bd09cec46a10e5917b1e8d31f38ae98e9a8adf3280a4a95de6712293e2bc7a8318520ee21fa221ced30757ec230991f3ac76a