OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #904268
ELECTRIC ARC,WIRE ROPE,SAFETY BELT,BROKEN CABLE,CONSTRUCTION,EQUIPMENT FAILURE,SCAFFOLD COLLAPSE,FALL,ARC WELDING,SCAFFOLD
Event description
Two employees killed in fall from collapsing scaffold
Investigation abstract
At approximately 12:15 a.m. on January 8, 1990, Employees #1, #2, and #3 were ar g orange extension cord. Employee #3 was not seriously injured. Employee #4 sust ained a bruised shoulder from debris that fell approximately 90 ft and struck hi m as he worked on an elevated scaffold floor in the 27 ft by 36 ft by 130 ft boi ler fire box. The 3/4 in. secondary manila rope suspension was either not attach ed or improperly tied, which allowed the scaffold to fall freely. The wire rope eyelet damage was caused by an electrical current. There was no ground conductor from the stage to the structure. The rubber insulator on the eyelet had a hole in it where the damage occurred. c welding boiler water wall panels from a two-point suspended scaffold. Employee s #1 and #2 were not using safety belts. A failure in the manufactured spliced e yelet of the wire rope suspension caused the scaffold to fall freely on one side while remaining suspended on the other side. Employee #1 fell approximately 90 ft, suffered multiple injuries, and died immediately. Employee #2 also fell 90 f t and suffered multiple injuries; he died the next day. Employee #3 said his saf ety belt was anchored to the outside guardrail. The guardrail broke free from th e falling scaffold and was inadvertently suspended by an approximately 30 ft lon
Victims (4)
-
#1 Fatality Age 40 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 5
- Source
- 42
- Occupation code
- 585
- Human factor
- 9
- Environmental factor
- 13
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Fatality Age 40 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 5
- Source
- 42
- Occupation code
- 585
- Human factor
- 9
- Environmental factor
- 13
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#3 Non-hospitalized injury Age 38 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 31
- Event type
- 5
- Source
- 42
- Occupation code
- 585
- Human factor
- 9
- Environmental factor
- 13
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#4 Non-hospitalized injury Age 52 M
- Nature of injury
- 3
- Part of body
- 21
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 42
- Occupation code
- 585
- Human factor
- 9
- 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.