fatal fact 1 a laborer engaged in the removal of an existing stairway fell through the stairway...

FATAL FACTFATAL FACT

1

A laborer engaged in the removal of an existing stairway fell through the stairway floor opening. He fell approximately 32 feet.


2

A carpenter apprentice was killed when he was struck in the head by a nail that was fired from a powder actuated tool. The tool operator, while attempting to anchor a plywood form in preparation for pouring a concrete wall, fired the gun causing the nail to pass through the hollow wall. The nail travelled some twenty-seven feet before striking the victim. The tool operator had never received training in the proper use of the tool, and none of the employees in the area were wearing personal protective equipment.


3

A laborer was killed when a gasoline storage tank he was cutting with a portable power saw exploded. The worker's company was involved in installing, removing and junking gasoline pumps and underground tanks. Although he had experienced working with the saw and scrap materials, the worker did not adequately purge the tank and test for vapors before beginning to cut. The 18 x 6 foot, 3000 gallon tank had been used recently for underground storage at a service station. At the time of the explosion, the mechanic was cutting on the tank with a gasoline powered portable saw equipped with an abrasive epoxy disk for cutting metal. The explosion propelled the worker 10 to 15 feet from the tank into another tank.


4

A crew of ironworkers and a crane operator were unloading a 20-ton steel slab from a low-boy trailer using a 50-ton crawler crane with 90-foot lattice boom. The operator was inexperienced on this crane and did not know the length of the boom. Further, no one had determined the load radius. During lifting, the load moved forward and to the right, placing a twisting force on the boom. The boom twisted under the load, swinging down, under and to the right. Two employees standing 30 feet away apparently saw the boom begin to swing and ran. The boom struck one of the employees - an ironworker - on the head, causing instant death. Wire rope struck the other -- a management trainee -- causing internal injuries. He died two hours later at a local hospital.


5

A laborer was steam cleaning a scraper. The bowl apron had been left in the raised position. The hydraulically controlled apron had not been blocked to prevent it from accidently falling. The apron did fall unexpectedly and the employee was caught between the apron and the cutting edge of the scraper bowl. The apron weighted approximately 2500 pounds.


6

A painter foreman

climbed over a bridge

railing to inspect work

being done, slipped,

and fell 150 feet to his

death.


7

Ball and socket connectors are used to attach conductor stringing blocks to insulators on the arms of 90 foot metal towers of electrical transmission lines. Normally stainless steel cotter keys secure the ball and socket connector in place. In this case, however, black electrical tape was wrapped around the socket to keep the ball in place rather than a cotter key. The tape apparently stretched and the ball came loose, dropping the stringing block approximately 90 feet onto the head of an employee below, one of a four-man erection crew.


8

Two employees were installing storm drain pipes in a trench, approximately 20-30 feet long, 12-13 feet deep and 5-6 feet wide. The side walls consisted of unstable soil undermined by sand and water. There was 3-5 feet of water in the north end of the trench and 5-6 inches of water in the south end. At the time of the accident, a backhoe was being used to clear the trench. The west wall of the trench collapsed, and one employee was crushed and killed.


9

Two laborers were working on a motorized two-point suspension scaffold 70 feet above ground level without safety belts, lanyards, or lifelines. Three wire rope clips forming an "eye'" for connecting the wire rope to the C. hook failed and that end of the scaffold came down. One employee fell to the ground, and the second employee at the other end was catapulted through an open window where he was pulled to safety by office workers. Two of the rope clips were still attached to the end of the rope after the accident. The inside tread of the third clip, which fell, was found to be stripped.


10

Two employees were making final adjustments to a large machine in a new paper mill facility. They were using two hydraulic jacks and two 4" × 4" uprights under one end of the 6,000 l b. piece of equipment which was suspended by four ¾ threaded rods. First, the employees would jack up one end of the piece about an inch. Then, one employee would climb a set of temporary steps to hand tighten the nuts on the threaded rods. Thus, the 6,000 lb. piece was supported solely by the two vertical timbers on the heads of the hydraulic jacks. The timbers were set under a 5/8" side rail without any block or other devices between them. No cribbing, blocking, shoring or other stabilizing methods were used to secure the load after it was raised. When the end of the piece was jacked up, it fell, crushing one employee and narrowly missing the other.


11

Four employees were boring a hole and pushing a 20-inch pipe casing under a road. The employees were in an excavation approximately 9 feet wide, 32 feet long and 7 feet deep. Steel plates 8' × 15' × ¾", being used as shoring, were placed vertically against the north and south walls of the excavation at approximately a 30 degree angle. There were no horizontal braces between the steel plates. The steel plate on the south wall tipped over, pinning an employee (who was killed ) between the steel plate and the pipe casing. At the time the plate tipped over, a backhoe was being operated adjacent to the excavation.


12

Two employees were painting the exterior of a three-story building when one of the two outriggers on their two-point suspension scaffold failed. One painter safely climbed back onto the roof while the other fell approximately 35 feet to his death. The outriggers were inadequately counterweighted with three 5-gailon buckets containing sand and were not secured to a structurally sound portion of the building. Neither painter was wearing an approved safety belt and lanyard attached to an independent lifeline.


13

A truck driver was crushed and killed between the frame and dump box of a dump truck. Apparently a safety "overtravel" cable attached between the truck frame and the dump box malfunctioned by catching on a protruding nut of an air brake cylinder. This prevented the dump box from being fully raised, halting its progress at a point where about 20 inches of space remained between it and the truck frame. The employee, apparently assuming that releasing the cable would allow the dump box to continue up-ward, reached between the rear dual wheels and over the frame, and disengaged the cable with his right hand. The dump box then dropped suddenly, crushing his head. The employee had not received training or instruction in proper operating procedures and was not made aware of all potential hazards in his work.


14

Two employees were installing aluminum siding on a farmhouse when it became necessary to remove a 36-foot high metal pole CB antenna. One employee stood on a metal pick board between two ladders and unfastened the antenna at the top of the house. The other employee, who was standing on the ground, took the antenna to lay it down in the yard. The antenna made electrical contact with a 7200-volt power transmission tine 30 feet 10 inches from the house and 23 feet 9 inches above the ground. The employee handling the antenna received a fatal shock and the other employee a minor shock.


15

An employee had placed metal bridge decking onto the stringers of the bridge deck to be welded. When the first decking was placed down on the stringers, the employee apparently stepped onto the decking that he had just placed down in order to put down the next decking. The decking the employee stepped onto was not secured in place, resulting in the employee falling approximately 80 feet into the river. Safety nets were being used under another section of the bridge but had not been moved forward as the crew moved to another area.


16

Five iron workers were distributing 90-foot-long open web bar joists on a building under construction. The bar joists were supported by vertical columns spaced 30 feet apart. The steel columns were not framed in at least two directions and the bar joists were not field bolted to the vertical columns to prevent collapse. The bar joists shifted, causing the vertical columns to lean. This caused entire section of columns and pen web bar joists to collapse. Two employees rode the iron down. One was fatally injured and one received serious injuries.


17

Employees were working on structural steel, hoisting pipes from ground level to higher levels for storage. While guiding a pipe to be stored on the floor above, one employee walked backwards off the end of a stored pipe. He fell about 12 feet to a concrete deck, suffering a fatal head injury.


18

An employee was assigned to connect the X-braces at the end of 40-foot long bar joists. Only one end of the bar joist he was working on had been welded. The employee was sitting on the unwelded end of the bar joist trying to connect the X-braces. He lost his balance, dislodging the bar joist from its end support, and fell approximately 24 feet to his death.


19

Two connectors were erecting lightweight steel "I" beams on the third floor of a 12-story building, 54 feet above the ground. One employee removed a choker sling from a beam and then attempted to place the sling onto a lower empty hook on a series of stringers. While the crawler tower crane was booming away from the steel, the wind moved the load line and stringer into the beam the employee was standing on. The beam moved while the employee was trying to disengage the hook, and fell to his death.


20

Employees were moving

a steel canopy structure

using a "boom crane"

truck. The boom cable

made contact with a 7200

volt electrical power

distribution line

electrocuting the

operator of the crane; he

was the foreman at the

site.


21

A three-man crew was installing an underground telephone cable in a residential area. They had just completed a bore hole under a driveway using a horizontal boring machine. The bore hole rod had been removed from the hole. While the rod was still rotating, the operator straddled it and stooped over to pick it up. His trouser leg became entangled in the rotating rod and he was flipped over. He struck tools and materials, sustaining fatal injuries.


22

An employee was operating a bulldozer at the top edge of a sloped excavation for a six-foot deep drainage ditch. The bulldozer began to slide down the side of the snow and ice covered excavation. It tipped over on its side, pinning the operator under the roll bars.


23

A laborer and his foreman were riding a material hoist carrying two skids of bricks up to the work floor. The skid jack handle fell and jammed into the interior cross bracing bar of the hoist at the fifth floor level. At the sixth floor level, the foreman jumped off the hoist. He struck the protection platform bar and was subsequently knocked into the hoist shaft. He fell 60 feet to his death.


24

Two employees were using a crawling board/chicken ladder type apparatus while they painted the roof of a barn. The crawling board/chicken ladder broke, and both employees fell approximately 35 feet to the ground, One employee sustained multiple injuries, and the other employee was killed.


25

An employee was installing a small diameter pipe in a trench 3 feet wide, 12-15 feet deep and 90 feet long. The trench was not shored or sloped nor was there a box or shield to protect the employee. Further, there was evidence of a previous cave-in. The employee apparently recentered the trench, and a second cave-in occurred, burying him. He was found face down m the bottom of the trench.


26

Employees were sand blasting and painting a water tower. A worker was spray painting the inside of the riser of the tower. He was standing on a fixed ladder 40 feet above the riser floor without wearing any fall protection gear. Apparently he slipped and fell through an opening in the floor of the riser onto a standpipe.


27

An employee was standing on a six-inch wide plank laid between two adjacent I-beams 14 feet above a concrete floor. He was using a jackhammer to chip away an old concrete and brick floor from a horizontal I-beam. Apparently he lost his balance and fell to the floor below, sustaining fatal head injuries. He was not wearing any fall protection gear nor were floor openings guarded by standard railings and toe boards or covers.


28

A welder entered a steel pipe (24 inch diameter) to grind a bad weld at a valve about 30 feet from the entry point. Before he entered, other crew members decided to add oxygen to the pipe near the bad weld. He had been grinding intermittently for about five minutes when a fire broke out enveloping his clothing. Another crew member pulled him 30 feet to the pipe entrance and extinguished the fire. However, the welder died the next day from his burns.


29

Carpenters were setting trusses on the second floor of a house they were building. There was no guardrail or floor cover over the floor opening for the stairway. While placing a truss in position, one of the carpenters fell through the opening to the concrete basement below.


30

A crew laying bricks on the upper floor of a three-story building built a six-foot platform spanning a gap between two scaffolds. The platform was correctly constructed of two 2" × 12" planks with standard guardrails; however, one of the planks was not scaffold grade lumber and also had extensive dry rot in the center. When a bricklayer stepped on the plank it disintegrated and he fell 30 feet to his death.


31

A laborer was working on the third level of a tubular welded frame scaffold which was covered with ice and snow. Planking on the scaffold was inadequate, there was no guardrail and no access ladder for the various scaffold levels. The worker slipped and fell head first approximately 20 feet to the pavement below.


32

An electrician was removing metal fish tape from a hole at the base of a metal light pole. The fish tape became energized, electrocuting him.


33

Employees were laying sewer pipe in a trench 15 feet deep. The sides of the trench, 4 feet wide at the bottom and 15 feet wide at the top, were not shored or protected to prevent a cave-in. Soil in the lower portion of the trench was mostly sand and gravel and the upper portion was clay and loam. The trench was not protected from vibration caused by heavy vehicle traffic on the road nearby. To leave the trench, employees had to exit by climbing over the backfill. As they attempted to leave the trench, there was a small cave-in covering one employee to his ankles. When the other employee went to his co-worker's aid another cave-in occurred covering him to his waist. The first employee died, the other employee suffered a hip injury.


34

Two plumbers working in a trench were being hoisted to the street level in the bucket of an excavator. As the excavator operator started to swing the bucket it jerked causing one employee to fall approximately 14 feet striking his head on the pipe in the trench.


35

Three employees were taking earth samples using a core sampling rig with a 22 foot high tower. As they removed the sampling rod, the rod struck a 4160 volt electrical power line directly above the work area. The employee handling the sampling rod and the employee handling a guy wire attached to the sampling rod were electrocuted, while the third employee who also was handling the sampling rod was severely shocked.


36

Four employees were working near pile driving equipment preparing to drive the first piling. Apparently the two clips on the eye of the hammer hoisting rope slipped, permitting the hammer which was still inside the lead to fall some 45 feet. The hammer struck a large timber on the ground breaking it. One end of the timber struck the employees, fatally injuring one man.


37

A contract employee was assigned to sandblast the inside of a reactor vessel during turnaround activities at a petrochemical refinery. Instead of relying on the contract company's own air compressors in accordance with the contractor's policy, the contract foreman connected the employee's supplied air respirator to a hose containing what he thought was plant air. Instead it was nitrogen. Both hoses were identical except for markings at the shutoff valve. The sandblaster entered the vessel, descended to the bottom, placed the respirator hood on his head and was overcome.


38

Two employees were moving structural steel building beams to a storage area. After setting the fourth beam on the crib, the signal man signaled the crane operator to pull the sling from around a cribbed structural beam which was set on its flange side. The second employee then attempted to remove the shackle from the beam when the swaged fitting of the sling apparently caught and caused the steel beam to roll off the cribbing, crushing the second employee.


39

An employee was driving a front-end loader up a dirt ramp onto a lowboy trailer. The tractor tread began to slide off the trailer. As the tractor began to tip, the operator, who was not wearing a seat belt, jumped from the cab. As he hit the ground, the tractor's rollover protective structure fell on top of him, crushing him.


40

Five employees were construction a chain link fence in front of a house and directly below a 7200-volt energized power line. They were installing 21-foot sections of metal top rail on the fence. One employee picked up a 21-foot section of top rail and held it up vertically. The top rail contacted the 7200-volt line, and the employee was electrocuted.


41

Four employees of a mechanical contractor were laying a lateral sewer line at a building site. The foreman, a plumber by trade, and a laborer were laying an eight-inch, 20-foot long plastic sewer pipe in the bottom of a trench 36 inches wide, nine feet deep, and approximately 50 feet long. The trench was neither sloped nor shored, and there was water entering it along a shale seam near the bottom. The west side of the trench caved in near the bottom, burying one employee to his chest and completely covering the other. Rescue operations took two and five hours - too late to save the men.


42

An employee was constructing the third level of a tubular welded frame scaffold while standing on the second level. The scaffold was constructed on a poured concrete floor and had been leveled. Each section of the framework measured 6'5" high. The working surface was solidly planked. When the employee tried to set the third level frame into the pins of the second level, the frame he was trying to position flipped to one side. The momentum of the frame thrust the employee backward off the second level. He fell to the ground, sustaining a fatal blow to his head.


43

One employee was unloading a 40-foot wood telephone pole from a pipe rack mounted on a truck crane. The truck operator raised the 17-foot boom to provide sufficient distance for the employee to place a cable sling around the pole and then attach the sling to the crane hook. However, in raising the boom, the operator made contact with overhead power lines. The victim reached for the metal bicycle-chain style come-along which secured the pole to the truck rack and received a fatal electrical shock. * Firm had a safety and health training program, but it had not been updated to cover changes in pole setting procedures.


44

A three-man crew was digging a trench for a new sewer line using a backhoe. The backhoe was very poorly maintained. Among other problems, its starter button did not work, and the safety catch on the gear shift was broken. In order to starl the machine, the operator used a screwdriver to engage the starter. When the gear shift engaged, the vehicle lurched forward, running over the victim. * Firm had a safety and health training program but it had not properly dealt with safe work practices.


45

A construction crew was preparing to pour concrete into forms. A laborer climbed up a ladder on one side of the forms and stepped over the form to stand on an unguarded scaffold on the opposite side. He was carrying two hand trowels and a brush to be used by other workers after the concrete was poured. He fell, striking his head on a concrete slab at ground level and sustained fatal injuries. * Because the employee had previously worked for the employer on several different occasions and had been performing this type of work over the last 21 years the employer felt no training was necessary for this employee and none was provided.


46

Three employees, under their supervisor's guidance, were demolishing a vehicular bridge 23 feet above a railroad track. The railroad was anxious to have the job completed as quickly as possible because soil erosion and disintegration of structural members had caused the bridge to shift. At the time of the accident the central flooring had been removed and two workers were on the remaining wooden walkway when they felt the bridge move. The supervisor noticed the movement also and called to both men to get off the bridge. One worker ran to safety, but the other froze and fell with the bridge when it collapsed. He died 11 days later.


47

Two employees were doing remodeling construction and were building a wall. One of the workers was killed when he was struck by a nail fired from a powder-actuated tool. The tool operator, while attempting to anchor plywood to a 2" × 4" stud, fired the tool. The nail penetrated the stud and the plywood partition prior to striking the victim.


48

Two employees were spreading concrete as it was being delivered by 1 concrete pumper truck boom. The truck was parked across the street from the worksite. Overhead power lines ran perpendicular to the boom on the pumper truck. One employee was moving the hose (elephant trunk) to pour the concrete when the boom of the pumper truck came in contact with the overhead rover line carrying 7,620 volts. Employee received a fatal electric shock and fell on the other employee who was assisting him. The second employee received massive electrical shock and burns.


49

The contractor was operating a backhoe when an employee attempted to walk between the swinging superstructure of the backhoe and a concrete wall. As the employee approached the backhoe from the operator's blind side, the superstructure hit the victim crushing him against the wall.


50

Employees were dismantling grain spouts at a grain elevator. Sections of the spout were connected by collars. A ten foot section of a spout weighing 600 pounds was being pulled through a vent hole by a 5-ton winch. As the spout was being pulled through the opening to the outside, the spout became wedged at the point where the collar was to pass through. Several employees used pry bars to free the collar which was under tension. The spout popped out of the vent striking and killing an employee who was standing beside the spout.


51

A four-man crew was replacing a concrete filter tank at a car wash construction site. After the small tank had been removed, two employees entered the trench to hand grade the bottom. The trench, 9' deep, 14' long, and 6' wide, had vertical faces which were not shored or sloped. One face of the trench collapsed, fatally injuring one employee and causing serious injuries to the other.


52

Two employees were welding brackets onto an oil storage tank (55,000 gallons). The tank, half full, contained explosive atmospheres of vapor from waste chemical and oil materials from automobile and truck service stations. One worker was killed and another injured when the tank exploded and the top was blown off.


53

A roofer, handling a

piece of fiberboard,

backed up and tripped

over a 7½ inch parapet.

He fell more than 50 feet

to ground level and died

of severe head injuries.


54

A plumbing company employee and an independent backhoe operator were making a sewer line connection in a 13-foot deep trench when a portion of the trench wall caved in burying the employee. The backhoe operator was buried up to his chest in the trench.


55

60 ft.

Two employees were

sandblasting a 110 foot

water tank while working

on a two-point suspension

scaffold 60-70 feet above

the ground. The scaffold

attachment point failed,

releasing the scaffold

cables, and the scaffold

fell to the ground. The

employees were not tied

off independently, nor was

the scaffold equipped with

an independent attachment

system.


56

One employee was climbing a metal ladder to hand an electric drill to the journeyman installer on a scaffold about five feet above him. When the victim reached the third rung from the bottom of the ladder he received an electric shock that killed him. The investigation revealed that the extension cord had a missing grounding prong and that a conductor on the green grounding wire was making intermittent contact with the energizing black wire thereby energizing the entire length of the grounding wire and the drill's frame. The drill was not double insulated.


57

Employee was suspended to the worksite in a harness made of lightweight chain on the end of a crane load line. During the operation the load line separated from a revolving drum due to improper crane operation. The victim was dropped into approximately 40 feet of water and was drowned. The supervisor in charge at time of the accident was the designated competent person at the site.


58

An employee was in the process of locating an underground water line. A trench had been dug approximately 4 feet deep along side a brick wall 7 feet high and 5 feet long. The brick wall collapsed onto the victim who was standing in the trench. The injuries were fatal.


59

The employee was attempting to correct an electrical problem involving two non-operational lamps. He proceeded to the area where he thought the problem was. He had not shut off the power at the circuit breaker panel nor had he tested the wires to see if they were live. He was electrocuted when he grabbed the two live wires with his left hand and then fell from the ladder.


60

An employee was working in a trench 4 feet wide and 7 feet deep. About 30 feet away a backhoe was straddling the trench when the backhoe operator noticed a large chunk of dirt falling from the side wail behind the worker in the trench, he called out a warning. Before the worker could climb out, 6 to 8 feet of the trench wall had collapsed on him and covered his body up to his neck. He suffocated before the backhoe operator could dig him out. There were no exit ladders. No sloping or shoring had been used in the trench.


61

An employee was working on a scaffold near the top of a 250-toot smoke stack when a section of concrete being removed fell onto the scaffold, knocking the employee off. The employee was not tied off with a safety belt and lanyard and fell to the ground below.


62

Three employees were sandblasting portions of a heat exchanger in a manufacturing plant, preparing the surface for paint. The job was almost finished except for some touch-up work. The air compressor used to supply breathing air to the sand-blasters' hoods was sent to another job. The workers hooked their supply hoses into the plant's air system without clearing it with the plant's management. The plant operators, not knowing the plant air was being used for breathing air, shut down the compressor for scheduled maintenance. This caused the nitrogen back-up system to come on line to maintain air pressure. One sandblaster was asphyxiated from the nitrogen being fed into his hood.


63

Employee was operating an aerial lift, with an extendable boom rotating aerial work platform. He was thrown from the basket while moving the machine. The boom was fully extended and the machine apparently ran over some bricks, causing the boom to flex or spring, throwing the employee from the basket. The fall was about 37 feet to a concrete surface. The employee died from severe head and chest injuries. The foreman was not on the site at the time.


64

A bulldozer operator was preparing a road bed by using the machine to lift trees out of the way. A hydraulic line to the right front hydraulic cylinder ruptured, spraying hydraulic fluid onto the engine manifold and into the operator's compartment. Upon contact with the hot manifold, the hydraulic fluid ignited, engulfing the operator in flames. The operator died from the burns he received.


65

Propane gas was being used to fuel a portable heater (blow torch). The torch flamed out, allowing gas to gather in the bilge area of a construction barge. The accumulated gas exploded with great force, killing the worker.


66

Two laborers and a fork lift driver were staking 40-foot-long I-beams in preparation for for structural steel erection. One laborer was placing a 2 X 4 inch wooden spacer on the last I-beam on the stack. The fork lift driver drove up to the stack with another I-beam that was not secured or blocked on the fork lift tines. The I-beam fell from the tines, pining the laborer between the fallen I beam and the stack of beams.