UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Three ironworkers were connecting sheeting girts on a coal silo bay wall. They had just connected one girt, and employee #2 and the third employee stepped back onto a previously erected girt. They were preparing to move up and hang another girt. Employee #1 stepped onto the girt. The single temporary set-up bolt on that end of the girt sheared, and the end of the girt dropped. Employee #1 fell approximately 71 feet and landed on protruding rebar in a trench on the south side of the wall on which they had been working. Employee #1 sustained multiple injuries resulting from the fall, from beams on the way down and impalement in the stomach on the rebar. These injuries resulted in his death. Employee #2 and the third employee grabbed and hung on to a diagonal I beam adjacent to the girt. Employee #2 sustained strained muscles under his arm, and the third employee escaped uninjured. No nets were in area under employees. The floor on the north side of the silo bay wall, 26 feet below, was not decked. The area to the south was a pipe chase open all the way to the ground.