Fatality Narrative: Roofer Falls 19 Feet from Roof

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Washington (State). Department of Labor and Industries
• Description:
  In March 2015, a 31-year-old Hispanic roofer was injured and later died after he fell from a house roof. The incident occurred at a job site during a tear-off and replacement of a roof on a two-story house. The victim had worked with his employer, a roofing contractor, for three months as a roofer. He had no previous roofing experience, but had done residential framing. At 8 a.m. on the day of the incident, the four-member crew met for their daily safety meeting after which they began the roof tear-off. They were each using a personal fall arrest system consisting of a full-body harness, a rope, a rope grab, and roof anchors. The roof pitch was 8:12. The weather was cloudy with intermittent light rain and mist. They worked quickly and by afternoon they had removed the existing roof and were laying down plywood sheathing and felt paper. While placing sheathing next to the chimney, the victim decided that he needed another small piece of sheathing. The sheathing was located on the other side of the roof. He unhooked from his fall protection safety line then slipped and fell from the roof, landing 19 feet below on concrete. Coworkers saw him just before he fell, but did not see him fall. They found him unconscious on the ground and called emergency services. He was transported to a hospital. He died 12 days later from multiple injuries to his head and body. His coworkers did not understand why he unclipped from his safety line. They were all wearing fall protection. Description provided by NIOSH
• Subjects:
  • Accident Prevention
  • Accidental Falls
  • Accidents
  • Accidents, Occupational
  • Construction Industry
  • Construction Materials
  • Education
  • Emigration and Immigration
  • Occupational Health
  • Personal Protective Equipment
  More +
• Keywords:
  • Workers
  • Work environment
  • Construction
  • Construction materials
  • Roof falls
  • Roofers
  • Roofing
  • Roofing and sheet metal work
  • Falls
  • Fall protection
  More +
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• 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:20051399
• Citation:
  Olympia, WA: Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, 71-154-2016, 2016 Dec; :1
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2017
• Performing Organization:
  Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Fatality narrative: roofer falls 19 feet from roof
• End Date:
  20260630
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/228728/cdc_228728_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 341.85 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:3332ac395017def85a7eb38e990c3a832942848a6c65fc7a6f97b48126191859f3534c91878ccb34001fc063fa8b866cc59dbf56cb7a7bc44cacbf8874700053