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 #689588

WINDOW WASHER,FRACTURE,CLEANING,SLIP,FALL,SLIPPERY SURFACE,FACE,LOST BALANCE,VERTEBRA,LEG

Event
WINDOW WASHER,FRACTURE,CLEANING,SLIP,FALL,SLIPPERY SURFACE,FACE,LOST BALANCE,VERTEBRA,LEG
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
689588
Report ID
552700

Event description

WINDOW WASHER FELL FROM THIRD FLOOR WINDOW

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1, A WINDOW CLEANER EMPLOYED BY PROFESSIONAL WINDOW AND HOUSECLEANING TO THE STREET. EMPLOYEE #1 SUFFERED A BROKEN VERTEBRA, BROKEN UPPER RIGHT LEG, T WO BROKEN ANKLES, TWO CRUSHED HEELS AND SEVERE FACIAL BRUISES. HE IS CURRENTLY H OSPITALIZED AT THE ST. PAUL-RAMSEY HOSPITAL. OF MINNEAPOLIS, WAS CLEANING WINDOWS AT THE WILDER RESIDENCE EAST IN ST. PAUL, M INNESOTA. THE DATE WAS JUNE 24, 1985. HE WAS WORKING AT THE THIRD FLOOR LEVEL. T HE WINDOW HE WAS CLEANING CONSISTED OF A SMALL (APPROXIMATELY 2 FEET BY 2 FEET) OPENABLE WINDOW, LOCATED NEXT TO A LARGER THERMOPANE WINDOW (APPROXIMATELY 3 FEE T BY 4 FEET). THE WINDOW CLEANERS NORMALLY OPEN THE SMALL WINDOW AND, STANDING O N A HEATING UNIT INSIDE THE BUILDING, REACH OUTSIDE TO CLEAN THE LARGE WINDOW. T HE ONLY WITNESS TO THE ACCIDENT STATED THAT HE THOUGHT THE WINDOW SILL WAS WET A ND SLIPPERY. WHEN EMPLOYEE #1 REACHED OUT TOO FAR, HE LOST HIS BALANCE AND FELL

Victim

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 34 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    5
    Source
    8
    Occupation code
    453
    Human factor
    20
    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.