Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025
105,991Records 70,589Employers 85,836Hospitalizations 27,959Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-11-30

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #818229

PROFESSIONAL FINISHES INC.

Event
GUARDRAIL, MOBILE SCAFFOLD, WORK RULES, CONSTRUCTION, TRIPPED, FALL, FALL PROTECTION, UNGUARDED, SCAFFOLD, TUBULAR SCAFFOLD
NAICS
000000
Inspection type
Accident-driven
Activity number
#18393330
Employer profile
PROFESSIONAL FINISHES INC.
Summary number
818229
Report ID
418800

Event description

Employee killed in fall from unguarded end of scaffold

Investigation abstract

On June 6, 1989, in bays 13 and 14 in Riviera Beach, FL, Employee #1 and a cowor ker were applying drywall to the interior walls of the bays. Employee #1 was wor king from a mobile self-propelled tubular welded frame scaffold, approximately 1 3 feet from the concrete floor. The coworker was cutting the drywall pieces on t he floor and passing them up to Employee #1 on the scaffold. The scaffold was no t fully planked or provided with standard guardrails and toe boards. After a pie ce was passed to Employee #1, he turned and began walking to the west end of the scaffold. He apparently tripped and fell 13 ft from the unguarded end of the sc affold to the concrete floor. Employee #1 was killed.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 32 Male

    Nature of injury
    Concussion (6)
    Part of body
    HEAD (13)
    Accident type
    FALL(FROM ELEVATION) (5)
    Source of injury
    WORKING SURFACE (42)
    Occupation
    Drywall installers (573)
    Human factor
    MISJUDGMENT, HAZ. SITUATION (1)
    Environmental factor
    WORK-SURFACE/FACIL-LAYOUT COND (13)
    Hazardous substance
    8880
    Task assigned
    Task regularly assigned (1)

Labels are OSHA's own, from the code dictionary published with the accident-investigation file. The raw code is shown beside each one so this page can be reconciled against OSHA's bulk data. OSHA notes that nature of injury, part of body, source of injury and accident type in this file are not coded to the Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System, and that the occupation titles are not standardised — so these values are not directly comparable with the OIICS-coded severe injury reports.