Injury Narrative: Construction Worker Falls 14 Feet from a Beam onto Concrete and Suffers Serious Brain Injury – Slideshow

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Washington (State). Department of Labor and Industries
• Description:
  On May 12, 2014, a 41- year-old construction worker suffered a severe traumatic brain injury when he fell approximately 14 feet and hit his head on the concrete below. The incident occurred at a new multi-family home construction site. The injured worker had only worked for two weeks for the employer, a small construction company that provided framing and carpentry services. He had been installing floor trusses on the second story above the garage of a multi-family home under construction at the time of the incident. The foreman and another employee were standing about 100 feet away in front of the building when they heard a noise and responded. They found the injured worker lying on the concrete, breathing but barely conscious. He was still connected to the rope and harness of his fall arrest system, which was anchored to a beam next to the garage. Although the injured worker was wearing fall protection, there had been too much slack in the rope, and it was not able to stop his fall. The foreman had warned him about having too much slack in the rope one week before the incident. He was taken to the hospital where he was found to have multiple skull fractures, brain hemorrhaging, and a spinal fracture. He underwent emergency surgery to relieve brain swelling. Nearly a year later, the injured worker is still in rehabilitation for his brain injuries and requires 24-hour-a-day living assistance. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accidental Falls Accidents Accidents, Occupational Construction Industry Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident Analysis Construction Workers Fall Protection Falls Safety Practices TBI Traumatic Brain Injury
• 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:
  1-7
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20061027
• Citation:
  Olympia, WA: Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, 71-137-2015s, 2015 Apr; :1-7
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• Performing Organization:
  Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Injury narrative: construction worker falls 14 feet from a beam onto concrete and suffers serious brain injury - slideshow
• End Date:
  20260630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:efb84f0027013da6ea1912f744be72179890abc1ac1c7066221b8533642517544da85ebc4da579974c0d6fd7c0c023e8ca59ee4218457e7be2abff26846655d9
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/224717/cdc_224717_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 828.92 KB ]