OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #893156
HEART,SKYLIGHT,ROOF,WORK RULES,CLEANING,LADDER,RUPTURE,FALL,FALL PROTECTION,LOST BALANCE
Event description
Employee killed in fall from roof
Investigation abstract
Between 9:00 and 9:45 p.m. on July 25, 1988, Employee #1 and a coworker were doi after trying to maintain his balance, or slid or rolled down the rear of the ro of from the peak. Employee #1 then abruptly dropped approximately 18 to 20 feet to compacted soil, hitting the ground with the front, upper left portion of his body. Employee #1's left subclavian artery ruptured. He also sustained abrasions to the scalp, and fractured the sixth and seventh anterior ribs and the left hu merus. Employee #1 was found unconscious by the coworker, who had not been in co ntact with the employee for at least 25 minutes. Employee #1 was flown to Fairfa x Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. ng pre-settlement cleaning and repairs on a single family structure in Clifton, VA. Following a checklist, Employee #1 was cleaning the skylight in a second flo or bath while the coworker was working in the basement. Employee #1 apparently d ecided that the skylight needed to be cleaned from the outside. Using a portable , collapsible ladder he had borrowed from the next door resident for another pur pose, Employee #1 mounted the roof at the lowest point in the front of the struc ture and attempted to walk across the peak of the cedar shake roof to the skylig ht. He apparently lost his footing and either fell from the low edge of the roof
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 47 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 5
- Source
- 8
- Occupation code
- 579
- Human factor
- 1
- 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.