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 #14526701

CHAIN,ERECTION PROCESS,UNSECURED,STUCK,WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,SCAFFOLD COLLAPSE,FALL,TUBULAR SCAFFOLD

Event
CHAIN,ERECTION PROCESS,UNSECURED,STUCK,WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,SCAFFOLD COLLAPSE,FALL,TUBULAR SCAFFOLD
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14526701
Report ID
418800

Event description

Four employees injured in scaffold collapse

Investigation abstract

A crew of twelve, including Employees #1 through #4, was erecting welded tubular o Employee #1 climbed to disconnect the west anchor chain, which had become stuc k when tested for tension. (The east side anchor chains were not tested.) When E mployee #1 released the anchor chain, the three sections started collapsing to t he east and the foreman yelled, "Jump!". Seven workers were on the scaffolds whe n they fell. All except for Employee #1 were on the west side scaffold installin g plywood for the pickboards. Employee #1 jumped 32 ft from the 5th level, landi ng within the structure, and Employees #2 through #4 jumped 16 ft from the 3rd l evel. All four were injured, and Employees #1 and #2 were hospitalized. The thre e coworkers jumped 8 ft from the 2nd level, and were not injured. -frame scaffolds in an open area about 1,000 ft from a building where the scaffo lds were to be used. Scaffold sections measuring 20 ft long by 5 ft wide by 40 f t high were preconstructed. Pickboards measuring 30 in. wide by 20 ft long were attached to the scaffold sections outside the framed structure and at anticipate d floor levels, or every 8 ft. Three sections were connected, running north and south, and they were secured by two anchor chains on the east side and one chain on the west side. The sections all had pickboards mounted on their east sides. A fourth section was being moved into place on the west side of the structure, s

Victims (4)

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 23 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    5
    Event type
    5
    Source
    42
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    6
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Hospitalized Age 44 M

    Nature of injury
    3
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    5
    Source
    42
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    6
    Task assigned
    1
  3. #3 Non-hospitalized injury Age 45 M

    Nature of injury
    20
    Part of body
    20
    Event type
    5
    Source
    42
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    6
    Task assigned
    1
  4. #4 Non-hospitalized injury Age 39 M

    Nature of injury
    3
    Part of body
    16
    Event type
    5
    Source
    42
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    6
    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.