105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14384002

FRACTURE,HEAD,WORK RULES,LADDER,STRUCK AGAINST,CONSTRUCTION,DESCENDING,SKULL,FALL,SLIPPERY SURFACE

Event
FRACTURE,HEAD,WORK RULES,LADDER,STRUCK AGAINST,CONSTRUCTION,DESCENDING,SKULL,FALL,SLIPPERY SURFACE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14384002
Report ID
521400

Event description

Employee killed in fall from work platform

Investigation abstract

Employee #1 and a coworker were retrieving 12 ft long 2 by 6 lumber from the thi was killed. Causal factors include location of lumber, improper ladder, failure to provide a barrier for unsecured work platform, and ice and or mud on the ladd er. rd level for use in constructing an exterior patio deck on the second floor of a residential unit. Employee #1 was on the third level handing down lumber to the coworker on the second level. Employee #1 descended a ladder made of 2 by 4s na iled to studs 14 in. apart. Employee #1 slipped on mud and/or ice on the bottom rung of the makeshift ladder, landing on unsecured 1 in. thick styrofoam insulat ion. He fell feet-first approximately 12 ft to the first level, landing on a cyl indrically-shaped heater and deflecting to the cement floor where he hit the rig ht side of his head, fracturing his skull and causing hemorrhaging. Employee #1

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 17 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    13
    Event type
    5
    Source
    42
    Occupation code
    569
    Human factor
    18
    Environmental factor
    13
    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.