OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14499917
THE DERSE COMPANY INC.
MILWAUKEE, WI·
Event description
Employee killed, one hurt in fall from collapsing billboard
Investigation abstract
At approximately 12:30 p.m. on January 3, 1989, Employees #1 and #2 were replaci ng sign facings on an outdoor display billboard at a height of about 50 ft. The display was a flag type structure, projecting nearly 50 ft horizontally from a c olumn attached at one end of the flag. The structure was held up by two sets of bolts, some 3 ft apart, six in direct tension, and six at the fulcrum. Two of th e bolts in tension had broken earlier, and the other four broke while the employ ees were on the sign structure. The cantilevered sign swung to a near vertical p osition. Employees #1 and #2 were thrown from the sign as it fell. Employee #1 w as killed and Employee #2 required hospitalization.
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 25 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 13
- Event type
- 5
- Source
- 42
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 13
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Hospitalized Age 22 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 16
- Event type
- 5
- Source
- 42
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- 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.