Fatality Narrative: HVAC Technician Falls Through Skylight - Slideshow

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. Requirements: Develop and implement a written fall protection work plan including each area of the work place where the employees are assigned and where fall hazards of ten feet or more exist. See WAC 296-155-24611(2). When employees are working in the vicinity of skylights which have been installed and are not capable of sustaining the weight of a two hundred pound person with a safety factor of four, one of the following fall protection measures shall be implemented: See WAC 296-155-24609(4)(d) A standard guardrail system; Cover or screen; A personal fall arrest system consisting of a body harness, lanyard, connectors, and anchor points. Personal protective equipment (PPE). Wherever hazards exist employers must: Do a hazard assessment for PPE use; Provide proper PPE; Train workers on safe PPE use. (PPE alone should not be relied on to provide protection for employees. PPE should be used after all other reasonable means of reducing hazards have been carried out.) See WACs 296-800-16020, 296-800-16025, and 296-800-16005. A hazard assessment should be completed by employers before employees perform rooftop work, whether that work involves maintenance or construction activities. Architects, designers, contractors, and building owners should consider guarding skylights with screens or guardrails to protect workers who must perform work on rooftops. Description provided by NIOSH
• Subjects:
  • Accidental Falls
  • Accidents, Occupational
  • Maintenance
  • Mortality
  • Occupational Health
  • Personal Protective Equipment
  • Safety
  • Workplace
• Keywords:
  • Fatalities
  • Roof falls
  • Fall protection
  • Work environment
  • Maintenance workers
  • Accidents
  • Safety practices
  • Personal protective equipment
  • PPE
  • Air conditioning equipment
• 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:
  1-9
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20060819
• Citation:
  Olympia, WA: Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, 71-124-2013s, 2013 Sep; :1-9
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2013
• Performing Organization:
  Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Fatality narrative: HVAC technician falls through skylight - slideshow
• End Date:
  20260630
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/229035/cdc_229035_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.03 MB]
• Collection(s):
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:981caa3688e2a21a274ebd784b0c037f1661e9e809472c708fd1eba2ee6afc8fe03f3dd1d796bffa015a9255c950503bc5b93f8a75c51622f761c0c6db85c9bb