Falls in Construction True-Story Fatality Cases

Examples to Use for Awareness Training

Accident Summary

The following presentation provides brief descriptions of various construction fatalities from falls that have occurred throughout the United States and in Washington state.

These incidents describe actual incidents where employees in the construction industry were working at elevated surfaces such as roofs, scaffolds, bridges or buildings, or using ladders. In every case, the victim’s life would have been saved by the use of fall protection or guardrails or by the proper use of ladders.

• A laborer fell through a sky light opening about 8 feet to a patio foundation that had about 20 half-inch rebars protruding straight up. The laborer was impaled by one of the bars and died.

Skylight Accident Summaries

• An employee was about 100 feet high on the roof of a motel installing glass in a skylight. While walking on the skylight framework, he slipped and fell backward through the skylight opening to the ground. The employee was not tied off. He died of massive internal injuries.

While standing on the low sloped roof (approx. 1:12) one employee was showing a new employee on the jobsite how to remove bolts from a metal roof for dismantling. As they discussed their working locations, the new employee stepped backwards onto a fiberglass skylight panel, which was not guarded and broke. He fell approximately 34' to the concrete floor below.

Skylight Accident Summary

• A journeyman glazier with 30 years experience, was working from the third level of a metal scaffold. He grabbed the midrail to get up, but it was loose on one end and the rail gave way. The employee fell approximately 19 ft to the ground.

Scaffold Accident Summaries

• An employee was working from a metal rolling scaffold approximately 8 ft 3 in. above floor level. He was installing a metal T-bar in the ceiling of a supermarket expansion project. He fell from the scaffold, which had no guardrails, and landed on the concrete floor. He sustained massive head injuries and blood loss.

An employee was applying a base coat for a stucco application from the 5th level of a system scaffold. There was a 24-inch gap between the scaffold and the face of the building. The employee was applying the base coat to a window trim, and in doing so, the employee lost his balance and fell between the scaffold and the face of the building. The employee fell 33 feet to the ground below and died from massive head injuries.

Scaffold Accident Summary

Accident Description: A laborer was working on the third level of a tubular welded-frame scaffold. Planking was inadequate and there was no guardrail. The worker slipped and fell head first 20 feet to the pavement below.

Scaffold Accident Summary

Accident Description: Two laborers were working on a motorized two-point suspension scaffold 70 feet above the ground without fall protection systems in use. The inside tread of a wire rope clip was stripped and caused the one end of the scaffold to be released. One employee fell to the ground, the other employee was catapulted through an open window and pulled to safety by coworkers.

Scaffold Accident Summary

Demolition employees were removing a concrete stairway. They had finished chipping concrete at each stairway landing to expose the rebar so it could be cut. The employees were working on the stairway in this weakened state and it suddenly collapsed. One fatality, one serious injury and one minor injury occurred.

Demolition Accident Summary

Accident Description: Laborer engaged in the removal of an existing stairway fell through the stairway floor opening. He fell 32 feet.

Demolition Accident Summary

Accident Description: An employee was operating an aerial lift with an extendable boom rotating aerial platform. The boom was fully extended when it ran over some bricks causing the boom to flex. The employee was thrown from the basket. The employee died from severe head and chest injuries.

Aerial Lift Accident Summary

An employee in the basket of an aerial lift, extended the boom approximately 30 ft to lift and move a crate of glass attached to the bottom of the basket by synthetic slings. The basket's capacity was posted at 500 lb. The glass weighed 1,080 lb. The weight of the load caused the wheels of the lift to leave the ground. When the crate was raised 6 in. above the ground, it struck another crate and the slings around the crate came loose. The aerial lift slammed back onto all four wheels, causing the employee to be catapulted out of the basket at a height of approximately 30 ft. The employee suffered multiple blunt force injuries and died.

Aerial Lift Accident Summary

An employee working for a private contractor fell during construction work on a coal barge unloading terminal. The employee had been standing on a 3 ton winching device in an attempt to bring newly installed steel pilings into vertical alignment. During the operation he fell 50 feet. A lifeline for fall protection was available along the entire length of the structure. Full body harnesses were available, but he was not wearing any type of fall protection device.

Elevated surface Accident Summary

While waiting for a lift truck operator to lift insulation to the third floor of a building, an employee was leaning on the guardrail at the third floor balcony. After leaning for approximately 40 minutes, the guardrails became unfastened and the employee fell approximately 24 feet to the ground.

Elevated Surface Accident Summary

Accident Description: A painter foreman climbed over a bridge railing to inspect work being done. He slipped and fell 150 feet to his death.

Elevated Surface Accident Summary

An owner was using a ladder attached to a rope secured to a porch column. The rope extended from the porch over the roof peak and was holding a step ladder flush against the metal roof. The owner was securing siding with a nail gun at the chimney. The rope was cut by the edge of the metal roof sending the ladder and the owner down a 12/12 pitched roof to ground level. The owner struck his head on masonry block causing massive head injury.

Ladder Accident Summary

An employee and his employer were installing a glass window from a roof. An 8 ft stepladder was leaned against the wall and window casing. While the employee was climbing with the pane of glass, the unsecured ladder slipped on the roofing tile, causing the employee to fall about 10 ft to the ground.

Ladder Accident Summary

An employee was preparing to release cables that were holding a 180 foot truss between several other trusses which had been improperly installed. All cross braces were removed except two. As the employee climbed onto the truss just west of the truss to be released, a cable snapped and 6 trusses including the one on which the employee was standing fell 30 feet to the second floor below. The employee was killed.

Roofing Truss Accident Summary

• An employee was installing roofing tiles on a residential roof having a ground to eave height of 28 feet. The employee began installing asphalt mastic for the second row of tiles from the inside corner of a dormer towards the outside. Having no spotter or use of any personal fall protection, the employee walking backwards fell off the roof striking the edge of a balcony at 19 feet and landing on the concrete patio below. Employee received serious head injuries.

Roofing Accident Summaries

• An employee was standing on the edge of low sloped roof of a newly framed three-story building. The employee was holding a large piece of particle board when the wind blew him off balance and he fell 28 feet to the ground below.

Accident Description: Carpenters were setting trusses on the second floor of a house. There was no floor cover over the stairway opening. While placing a truss in position, one of the carpenters fell through the opening to the concrete basement.

Unguarded Opening Accident Summary

An employee was caulking seams at the northwest corner of a dome over a building when he fell about 9 feet through an opening where a glass panel was supposed to be. He landed on a balcony on the second level and died instantly. The employee was not wearing a safety harness.

Unguarded Opening Accident Summary

The deceased was working 24 feet, 8 inches above the concrete floor without any fall protection. He was involved in steel erection, installing (spot welding) a joist on the roof support of a building under construction. He fell, and received fatal injuries.

Steel Erection Accident Summary

An employee was elevated 20 feet to the 3rd floor of a hotel under construction. He was elevated in a job-made wooden box (work platform) supported by the tines of a rough terrain forklift, designed to lift materials only. The work platform fell off forklift tines, throwing the employee 20 feet to the ground, fatally injuring him with multiple trauma and a massive head injury.

Miscellaneous Accident Summary

An air conditioning installer was attaching a section of duct to a rafter with a strap while standing on a plywood floor. Having completed this attachment, he stepped from the plywood floor to a section of suspended ceiling and fell 9 ft to the floor. He suffered a cerebral hemorrhage due to a skull fracture and died.

Miscellaneous Accident Summary

Fatalities from Falls in Washington State

On August 1, 2002, a mason working from a scaffold to build a block wall, leaned forward over the wall he was working on and fell 25 feet to a concrete surface below. The 32-year-old member of the bricklayer’s union was working for a masonry contractor helping to construct a warehouse-style building. At the time of the incident the victim was level-troweling a masonry block wall, the top of which was 24 inches above the scaffold plank on which he was standing. He fell forward over the wall and landed on a concrete surface 25 feet below. Front guardrails or fall arrest systems were not in use.

Fall from a Scaffold

Fatalities from Falls in Washington State

On April 1, 2002, a worker was fatally injured during a residential roof tear-off when he fell from a plank used as a ramp that was placed between the roof and the side of a debris truck. On the morning of the incident the victim had been hired through a temporary help service to work for a roofing contractor. The job involved tearing off ceramic tiles from a single- family residence in preparation for putting on a new asphalt composite roof. A crew of six laborers and a supervisor had been working during the morning stripping tiles from the roof and hand carrying the tiles and debris in metal garbage cans from the roof to a truck, across a plank, where the debris was dumped. The plank was a 20-foot long by 14-inch wide commercially available ladder jack scaffolding plank. At its highest point, the plank was 11 feet from the ground. At the time of this incident, instead of using a garbage can, the victim was carrying an armload of debris across the plank to the truck when he fell 9 feet to the asphalt surface of a driveway below. He died two days later of head and neck injuries. It is unknown whether the victim had any experience or training in construction or roofing.

Fall off Elevated Plank

Fatalities from Falls in Washington State

On September 4, 2003, a construction laborer fell 50 feet through an unguarded skylight during re-roofing operations at a steel plant. The 35-year-old victim was an employee of the construction company performing the re-roofing and had been working at this job site for the past three weeks. He was working with a crew of three others. On the date of the incident, the victim and another worker carried roof panels about 300 feet along a flat section of roof and then walked up to the roof ridge to hand the panels off to two workers on the other side who were fastening them to the roof structure. During one of these trips the victim handed a panel over the ridgeline to another worker and then slipped, fell backwards, and slid on his back onto an unguarded fiberglass skylight. The skylight failed and he fell 50 feet, landing on machinery below. The victim died at the scene.

Fall Through a Skylight

Fatalities from Falls in Washington State

On July 9, 2003, a lead sheet metal worker for a HVAC contractor was on the roof of a building preparing to set roof curbs for a ventilation system when he fell 32 feet through an opening in the roof. In order to install the ventilation fans above a welding shop, carpenters had cut 3 openings in the building’s roof, each measuring 5’10” x 5’3” and installed small curbing around them. The openings had been covered with plywood siding and the roof membrane placed over the cover and loosely nailed. The covers were nailed loose enough that a person could pop them free by hand. The victim went on to the roof to install larger curbs as part of a three- man crew. Two workers on a lower roof level were to lift the curbs up to the victim. They pushed the first curb up to the higher roof level and the victim pulled it up. When they pushed thenext two curbs up they got no response from the worker above. They went up to the higher roof level to look for him. They found that a cover had been removed from one of the openings and their coworker had fallen into the opening and landed on the floor 32 feet below. It is not known why the cover had been removed from the opening at that time.

Fall Through a Roof Opening

Fatalities from Falls in Washington State

On June 24, 2004, a carpenter died when he fell from a stepladder. The 44-year-old victim was an experienced carpenter and framer. He was employed by a framing contractor and was part of a crew framing a bed and breakfast establishment. The victim and a foreman were each climbing up 8 foot fiberglass stepladders attempting to install a wooden beam (6”x10”x16’, weighing about 205 lb), on two posts. They were climbing the stepladders while holding the wooden beam with one hand and resting it on their shoulders. The beam was to be set on posts that were about 11 feet, 9 inches tall and spaced about 15 feet apart. The victim was about to place his end of the beam on the post when he fell from the stepladder. His head struck the concrete patio below and he subsequently died of head injuries from the fall. An investigation determined that the stepladders used by the contractor employees, were overloaded beyond the manufacturer’s rated capacity, and that the two employees were standing on the top steps of the ladders.

Fall from a stepladder

Non-fatal Injury Facts – Falls from Elevation

A recent study of worker compensation claims in Washington state showed that the highest number of time-loss injury claims from falls from elevation occurred in the following types of construction:

1. Foundation, structure & building exterior contractors

2. Building equipment contractors

3. Residential building contractors

4. Building finishing contractors

From 1998 to 2002, over 3800 employees working for these contractors were injured seriously enough from falls that they had to take time off from work to recover from their injuries, or in some cases were permanently disabled

Falls from elevation at Washington state construction sites, 1998-2002

For detailed description of work done by these contractors, click here

Some resources for you

• OSHA Fatal Facts Accident Reports: OSHA – Fatal Facts Accident Reports

• Dept. of Labor & Industries: SHARP Fatality Narratives

• For general safety information, visit our website at: www.LNI.wa.gov/safety

• For training on fall protection and ladders, visit our online safety course website at: http://www.lni.wa.gov/Safety/TrainTools/Online/Courses/default.asp

• For additional assistance, you can call one of our consultants. Click below for local L&I office locations: www.LNI.wa.gov/wisha/consultation/regional_consultants.htm

Thank you for taking the time interest to learn about safety and health and how to prevent injuries and illnesses.