OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #964031
INSTALLING,UNSECURED,CARPENTER,CEILING,LADDER,FALL
Event description
EMPLOYEE PARALYZED FROM A FALL OFF OF AN UNSECURED LADDER
Investigation abstract
On January 15, 1990, an employee completed installing a 2 in. by 4 in. blocking to the third level ceiling of an apartment building and attempted to exit the ar ea through a 12-ft-long job-made ladder. The position of the ladder was between the third floor stair landing (approximately 19.42 ft above the concrete floor) and the next lowest stair landing (approximately 14.17 ft above concrete floor). As he descended the ladder, the ladder slipped out from underneath him resultin g in his fall. He received severe back and spinal cord injuries resulting in par tial paralysis from the fall. The ladder was not tied down or blocked and was at an unsafe pitch.
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 23 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 5
- Source
- 25
- Occupation code
- 567
- Human factor
- 9
- Environmental factor
- 13
- 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.