Fatality Narrative: Roofer Falls 30 Feet Through Skylight

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Washington (State). Department of Labor and Industries
• Description:
  A 47-year-old roofer was cleaning the roof of a commercial warehouse when he fell through a skylight. He had worked six years for a roofing contractor that does roofing, cleaning, and maintenance work on commercial building roofs. On the day of the incident, he was a member of a six-person crew cleaning and removing debris from a commercial warehouse roof. Workers were using leaf blowers and brooms to sweep debris, which they then shoveled into plastic bags for removal. The flat roof measured 200 feet by 320 feet; it had 97 unprotected skylights. The supervisor, who was also the safety monitor, was standing about 20 feet from the victim when he saw him stepping backward toward a skylight. The supervisor yelled "skylight!" to warn him. The victim, who had been talking with a coworker, caught his foot on the skylight frame and stumbled backward. The coworker reached out to grab him, but was unable to. The victim fell onto the unprotected plastic dome skylight cover, which broke, and he fell through the skylight. He landed 30 feet below on a concrete floor. Investigators found: 1) Inappropriate fall protection was used. Safety monitor and warning line systems should not be used when unprotected skylights are present. Though warning lines must be used around unprotected sides and edges of a low pitch roof work area. 2) The employer did not protect skylights. 3) The building owner did not protect skylights. Description provided by NIOSH
• Subjects:
  • Accident Prevention
  • Accidental Falls
  • Accidents
  • Accidents, Occupational
  • Construction Industry
  • Occupational Health
  • Personal Protective Equipment
  • Safety
• Keywords:
  • Construction
  • Falls
  • Fall protection
  • Safety
  • Safety measures
  • Safety programs
  • Hazards
  • Accidents
  • Accident prevention
  • Roof support systems
  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:20057926
• Citation:
  Olympia, WA: Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, 71-188-2019, 2019 Nov; :1
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2020
• Performing Organization:
  Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• End Date:
  20260630
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/228924/cdc_228924_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 673.54 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:80ab4b7091ae489ba37578f52c97c191cf09dc8c59437e3eb0a25928ae6ef83502d3e99a5aac8d5c925850930ca9c819628401b85d0fd2961d90bd383b0de707