'I fell off the roof today'

Details

• Personal Author:
  Stafford P
• Description:
  We recently received a video so remarkable that it deserves to be shared with everyone who walks onto a construction site. In "I fell off the roof today," posted on YouTube, a roofer identified only as "Isidro" shares a harrowing experience. While working on the roof of a three-story, stick-built residential project, Isidro lost his balance. But not his life. Fortunately, his employer had supplied suitable fall protection gear, and Isidro had donned it properly. "The first thing I did on the roof is install an anchor above," he explained. "I already had my harness on. I had everything on, everything in place." His fall over the roof's edge was arrested almost immediately, and his co-workers freed him before he suffered any lasting effects. Still photographs presented in the video show Isidro dangling after the fall, shocked but unharmed, driving the point home. "You will never see me on a site untied," Isidro concludes. "We all have family. So protect yourself." People share such stories with me frequently because, one year ago, as envisioned by the NORA Construction Sector Council, CPWR -- The Center for Construction Research and Training joined the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to launch a nationwide initiative to prevent fatal falls in construction. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis announced the Campaign to Prevent Falls -- Falls Cost, Safety Pays at a widely attended Workers' Memorial Day observance and summit in Los Angeles in April 2012. It couldn't have happened a moment too soon. Injuries and deaths from falls remain stubbornly high in the building trades. Construction workers represent only 8 percent of the American workforce but suffer 22 percent of all workplace fatalities, with falls as the leading cause. Almost every working day somewhere in the United States, a man or woman employed in the building industry dies in a fatal fall on the job. Every year more than 10,000 construction workers experience serious, even life-changing, injuries from falls. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accidental Falls Accidents Construction Industry Mortality Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Safety Management
• Keywords:
  Construction Construction-industry Construction-workers Fall-protection Harnesses Injury-prevention Mortality-rates Personal-protective-equipment Roofers Roofing-industry Safety-climate Safety-measures Safety-practices Traumatic-injuries Work-practices

  More +
• ISSN:
  0362-4064
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  82
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20042705
• Citation:
  Occup Health Saf 2013 Apr; 82(4):30,32,34
• Contact Point Address:
  P. Stafford, CPWR--The Center for Construction Research and Training, USA
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2013
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction
• Performing Organization:
  CPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training, Silver Spring, Maryland
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20090901
• Source Full Name:
  Occupational Health and Safety
• End Date:
  20240831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:58e3b22b0c63b057c954b972c4b56c9fd7ac2813a9f2558ed82a6bbf5acd6b4ae806ef6d490186a54fa4361d94658936cc7d0910adcb7d6ebfe224fc1f2759af
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/194843/cdc_194843_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 513.56 KB ]