Fatality Narrative: HVAC Technician Falls Through Skylight

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Washington (State). Department of Labor and Industries
• Description:
  On June 15, 2012, a 44-year-old heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) technician died when he fell through a skylight. The victim had worked for his employer, an HVAC contractor, for the previous four years. On the day of the incident, the victim and two other company employees were performing routine maintenance on rooftop HVAC units. The commercial building roof where they were working was flat and had unguarded skylights. The workers were not using fall protection. After they had been working for about four hours changing belts on HVAC units, the victim needed to go to their work van to get a belt. A coworker gave him the vehicle keys. As the victim was walking away from the coworker, he turned back towards him and began speaking to him. He then tripped on the lip of an unguarded skylight and fell through it. He landed approximately 26 feet below on a concrete floor. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accidental Falls Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Education Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Staff Development Ventilation Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Accident Prevention Air Conditioning Equipment Fall Protection Falls Harnesses Hazards Heating Systems Injuries Personal Protection Personal Protective Equipment PPE Roof Falls Safety Education Safety Equipment Safety Measures Safety Practices Skylights Training Traumatic Injuries Work Environment Workers Worker Safety

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• Publisher:
  Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 10 ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20051502
• Citation:
  Olympia, WA: Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, 71-124-2013, 2013 Sep; :1
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2013
• Performing Organization:
  Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Injury narrative: HVAC technician falls through skylight
• End Date:
  20260630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c981c853fe509ece71816ed222530d0535ff30afdb6a4e5f8f1a36bc0dfecdd0ffc1d187eb5901a57a8da29c99f75bb11c6d1794067e4ec9b8283c74ac2b4c01
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/211417/cdc_211417_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 124.39 KB ]