104,543Records 70,659Employers 84,666Hospitalizations 27,563Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-09-30
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14201487

FRACTURE,GUARDRAIL,BACK,FALL,NECK

Event
FRACTURE,GUARDRAIL,BACK,FALL,NECK
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14201487
Report ID
352410

Event description

EMPLOYEE HURT IN FALL WHEN GUARDRAIL FAILS

Investigation abstract

On June 7, 1984, Employee #1 was removing the guardrails from the stair landing back. between the second and third floor so he could stucco the walls. The general con tractor told Employee #1 to make sure he reinstalled the guardrails which he did . However, instead of installing the rail on the inside of the 2 by 4 vertical s upport railings, he nailed them on the outside with two 16 penny duplex nails on each end. Fifteen to twenty minutes after the guardrail was reinstalled Employe e #1 came down the stairs. Someone from the ground level called to him and he we nt over to the railing. The railing then came loose and Employee #1 and the rail ing fell to the ground. Employee #1 was hospitalized for fracturing his neck and

Victim

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 29 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    5
    Source
    8
    Occupation code
    88
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    18
    Task assigned
    1

Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.