Inspection Detail

Inspection: 120190764 - Tutor Saliba Perini J V

Inspection Information - Office: Sacramento Mining & Tunneling District Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 3:00 p.m. on December 15, 1995, Employee #1, a welder employed by Tutor Saliba Perini, was finishing his end of shift clean-up work at the Area 2 pile driving excavation site of the Muni Metro Turn Back Facility project. He was walking on top of the slurry wall bottom step, which had a 24 in. break in elevation from the A level waler, in search of a piece of pad eye to be used by a coworker who was working overtime. As he stepped down from the slurry wall to the top of the wet 6 in. diameter PVC water pipeline, he slipped and lost his balance. He fell backward over the cable guardrail, which was rigged about 10 in. lower than a standard guardrail. He fell 15 ft from the A level to the top of the muck pile, which is 30 in. below the B level waler, suffering multiple trauma, fractured ribs, a fractured spine, and punctured lungs. Employee #1 required about a three-week stay in the hospital. The distracting presence of a 12 in. by 72 in. opening adjacent to the waler; the substandard manner in which the section of the A level cable guardrail was rigged; and the lack of a stairway to offset the break in elevations ranging from 22 to 24 in. in the heavily used travelway; all compounded by the prevailing wet weather at the time of the accident, were determined as the causal factors of this fall accident.

Keywords: FRACTURE, LUNG, STAIR, GUARDRAIL, WORK RULES, SLIP, WELDER, CONSTRUCTION, FALL, SLIPPERY SURFACE