Inspection Detail

Inspection: 102027695 - C E V Building Systems Ltd.

Inspection Information - Office: Department Of Labor, Licensing, And Regulation Division Of Labor And Industry Maryland Occupational Safety And Health

Investigation Summary

Employee #1 and a foreman had gone out onto the fourth level of a five-level tubular welded frame scaffold that had been erected alongside a 25-ft section of a three-story building. The foreman showed Employee #1 where he was to install missing brick ties between the second and third floors; they then went back to the third floor and parted company. Employee #1 went to the second floor outlet box and strung out an extension cord for his screw gun, which he took out onto the scaffold at the second level. He climbed the end framing to the third level and proceeded toward the outer end of the wall. Employee #1 dropped his screw gun, which caught in the plastic windbreaker sheeting that had been installed on the outside of the scaffold. When he went to retrieve it, he lost his footing and fell about 20 ft to the frozen earth, striking parts of the framing on the way down. Employee #1 was hospitalized. The second scaffold level was even with the second building floor, and the fourth scaffold level with the third building floor. Access from the second and third floors was by way of an unguarded plank that spanned a 30- to 40-in. wide space, 13 ft above the ground at the second floor level, and 26 ft above ground at the third floor level. The scaffold platform was four planks wide on the second and fourth levels and one plank wide (in the middle of the framing) on the third level. The platforms had cross braces but no guardrails.

Keywords: GUARDRAIL, WORK RULES, STRUCK AGAINST, CONSTRUCTION, FALL, FALL PROTECTION, LOST BALANCE, UNGUARDED, SCAFFOLD