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 #14396998

COMMUNICATION TOWER,WORK RULES,SAFETY BELT,CONSTRUCTION,FALL,TIE-OFF,INATTENTION

Event
COMMUNICATION TOWER,WORK RULES,SAFETY BELT,CONSTRUCTION,FALL,TIE-OFF,INATTENTION
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14396998
Report ID
625400

Event description

CONSTRUCTION EMPLOYEE KILLED IN FALL FROM TRANSMISSION TOWER

Investigation abstract

AT APPROXIMATELY 5:30 PM ON NOVEMBER 3, 1987, EMPLOYEE #1 AND ANOTHER EMPLOYEE W ERE WORKING ON LIGHTS INSTALLED AT THE 290 FOOT LEVEL OF A TELEVISION TRANSMITTE R TOWER. BOTH EMPLOYEES WERE WEARING SAFETY BELTS. HOWEVER, WHEN EMPLOYEE #1 UNH OOKED HIS BELT TO MOVE TO ANOTHER AREA, HE FORGOT TO REHOOK IT BEFORE HE BEGAN W ORKING. HE LEANED BACK AND FELL 290 FEET TO THE GROUND. HE DIED AT THE SCENE OF NUMEROUS INTERNAL INJURIES.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 20 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    5
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    13
    Task assigned
    2

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.