Construction Worker Dies in 7-foot Fall

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Kentucky Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Program (KY FACE) ; University of Kentucky. College of Public Health. Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center
• Description:
  A 41-year-old male construction worker (the victim) died in a fall while working in a warehouse. He had been hired to build wooden racks to hold building products in a warehouse. The racks were made of wood and stood 10½ feet high and 12 feet long (Figure1). On his fifth day of work, the victim was working alone in the warehouse. At about 8:40 am, two workers in the office heard a noise in the warehouse and went in to check on what happened. They found the victim sitting on the concrete floor beside the rack on which he had been working and he was complaining that his head and neck hurt. He said that he had fallen from the rack he was standing on (about 7 feet off the floor), apparently while trying to nail on a board at the top. As the two men helped him up, he complained that his knee hurt also. They drove him to a physician's office for treatment and he was subsequently sent to a local hospital for x-rays and further examination. His head injuries were extensive and his conditioned worsened. He was transported to a higher level trauma hospital where he lapsed into a coma and died the following afternoon. In order to prevent similar incidents from occurring, FACE investigators recommend that: 1. Employers should develop and enforce written policies related to safe work practices. 2. Employers should require the use of appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE).
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Construction Industry Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-potential Accident-prevention Construction Construction-industry Construction-workers Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 4 Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-practices Traumatic-injuries

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Construction ; Falls ; Falls - Construction - Residential
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE97KY111
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Kentucky ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  3 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20026375
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2011-100793
• 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 97KY111, 1998 Jan ; :1-3
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1998
• Performing Organization:
  Kentucky Department of Health Services
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  42 - Wholesale Trade - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1993/09/30
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:144a55020a56e1792d3b75b84d37cf78386efc7dfab8fbf4e89b4cf0635fb98973ae5205018b4a19d658e3b1f16cfd733d19c3fc2b906792d8fcfd18c0404bda
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/170184/cdc_170184_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 17.75 KB ]