Construction Fatality Narrative: Inexperienced Framer Falls 22 Feet from Upper Floor [2024]

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Washington (State). Department of Labor and Industries
• Description:
  A 30-year-old framer fell 22 feet from an unfinished upper floor of a new single-family house under construction. He worked for his employer, a residential framing contractor, for only three days. He was inexperienced and learning on-the-job. The framer was working with a supervisor on the unfinished, open-sided floor. The floor was still being framed, and the supervisor removed fall prevention guardrails in an area where a wall assembly was going to be installed. The supervisor instructed the framer to cut out a window opening in a piece of wood sheathing being prepared for the wall assembly. After making the opening, the framer went to drop the cuttings down to a scrap pile on the ground. He walked on the wall assembly, which was laying on the floor, and then onto a small piece of attached sheathing that extended past the edge of the floor. The sheathing was not properly nailed down and gave way under his weight, causing him to fall 22 feet to the ground. The supervisor witnessed the fall, ran downstairs, and called 911. The emergency dispatcher guided him in giving first aid. When first responders arrived, they could not save the framer, who died of severe head injuries. Following the incident, investigators found: The employer had no fall protection system and work plan and did not enforce any requirements. The employer had been previously cited for fall protection rule violations. The framer was wearing a body harness but had no other personal fall arrest system (PFAS) components. Supervisors routinely used chalk lines in place of PFAS when guardrails were removed, but no lines were observed at the incident site. The owners were aware of but never corrected the unsafe practice. Workers were rushing to raise the walls so trusses could be placed on top of them upon delivery and to avoid the delay of having the trusses delivered on the floor and lifted by a crane later. REQUIREMENTS: Employers must: Employers with employees exposed to fall hazards must have and enforce policies in their accident prevention program (APP) that meet the Unified Safety Standards for Fall Protection. The employer must 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. Ensure a competent person trains each affected employee to know at least the following: (a) The nature of fall hazards in the work area; (b) When fall protection is required; (c) What fall protection is required; (d) The correct procedures for erecting, maintaining, assembling, disassembling, and inspecting the fall protection systems to be used; (e) The use and operation of fall protection systems used; (f) Limitations of fall protection systems used; (g) Proper care, maintenance, useful life, removal from service; and (h) The requirements of this chapter. RECOMMENDATIONS: FACE investigators concluded that to help prevent similar occurrences employers should: Develop APP policies to use PFAS when fall prevention guardrails are not in place on open-sided floors. Discuss fall protection policies at crew meetings, monthly safety meetings, and annual stand-downs. Conduct recurring hands-on fall protection training and ensure workers show proficiency in practice. Require all levels of management to spot check workers and enforce fall protection policies and practices. Use a project timeline to communicate task schedules with workers and suppliers to avoid rushing. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accidental Falls Accident Prevention Accidents Construction Industry Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident Prevention Construction Workers Fall Protection Falls Harnesses Safety Practices
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• 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:20069664
• Citation:
  Olympia, WA: Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, 71-253-2024, 2024 May; :1
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2024
• Performing Organization:
  Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Construction fatality narrative: inexperienced framer falls 22 feet from upper floor
• End Date:
  20260630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:fe848247e491c816734f0daef5a4b255bb805dd50c6d744520b4b391fe1ccdd704e5d9b484c6c009ca2a4407836c983874aefade6574318ea06bfeb9f9df9a9c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/229223/cdc_229223_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 292.88 KB ]