Inspection Detail

Inspection: 125878793 - Bomel Construction Company Inc

Inspection Information - Office: Long Beach District Office

Investigation Summary

On August 26, 2008, an employee, who was a supervisor, was standing on a wooden plank, one of 3 wooden planks all in the same vertical plane, at a height of about 4 ft from the floor level. He had harness, lanyard or waist belt on his body. The lanyard was 2-in. wide and the belt was 1.25-in wide. But the lanyard, end hook was not secured to a support point to give him support from fall. The waist belt had two positioning hooks. One of these was tied on an upper plank and the other hook was not tied to any support point. The employee was hammering nails on wooden plank members to make the joints final. At certain point only operational belt hook of the employee, as explained above, was tied at an upper level support. The employee in this position was holding a framing member by left hand and with his right hand he loosened the belt hook support. This changed the support to an upper level framing member. The employee was not aware that this belt support plank member was not properly tightened or nailed and it was somewhat loose. As the employee changed the support point of the belt hook, as he continued working soon after that with a slight change in his standing position, he fell. The employee's lanyard hooks were not tied and one of his two belt hooks was not tied. Down on the floor level, there were some rebar rods, 0.625-in diameter, and 3.5-in. high. At least one of the rebar rods was uncapped. As the employee fell, his right buttock was impaled by the one uncapped rebar which was somewhat bent at an angle, to make more room for the employees to work at the floor level. The impalement was to the extent of about 4-in. However, due to the impact and due to the fall, the rebar came out from the employee's body. The employee called for assistance by his cell phone because there was nobody else around him. The employee was initially taken to Harbor UCLA hospital, where he stayed for 3 days. Then, the employee was transferred to the Western Medical Center, where he was hospitalized for two days. No surgery was performed because of the proximity of nerves near the wounded area.

Keywords: REBAR, BELT, IMPALED, CARPENTER, LANYARD, FALL PROTECTION, STRUCK BY