Inspection Detail

Inspection: 18840199 - Kaitis Painting Company Inc.

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

Investigation Summary

Employee #1 of the Kaitis Painting Company, and a coworker, his father, were sandblasting the old paint off the eight beams that hold up the Bentalou Street Bridge, which crosses over the Western Maryland railroad tracks. Once they had finished sandblasting, they were to repaint the beams. The company had taken off 1986 and this was its first job since the end of 1985. After bringing all of the equipment under the bridge, Employee #1 and the coworker proceeded to set up their wire ropes and scaffold. They used 1/2 in. wire rope and secured it at the southern and northern shoes that held beam #1 (starting on the eastern side of the bridge). A come-along applied 1,000 to 1,200 lb pressure/tension on the wire rope, pulling it tight, and three wire rope clips were put on each end to create the loops that held the wire rope. They moved to the fourth beam and repeated the same procedure. Then Employee #1 and his father hung from the wire ropes as a means of load testing them. They put the scaffold slings/hooks on each wire rope and then placed a metal scaffold through the sling hooks. Employee #1 got under beam #1 and his father was under beam #4. They both were facing south and started to pull themselves hand-over-hand on the wire rope, heading toward the northern end of the bridge. They were then going to start stringing a second wire rope under each beam to be used as a safety line. About 30 ft out from the southern end of the bridge, the wire rope under beam #1 suddenly snapped, causing the scaffold to fall with Employee #1. He fell horizontally and struck his back on an upright metal railroad track that was sticking 3 ft 3 1/2 in. out of the ground. He then rolled off onto the ground. His father was able to hold onto his wire rope under beam #4 and then jumped to the ground and ran to his son. After about one hour, Employee #1 was brought up to the road level and taken to Bon Secors Hospital, where he died of his injuries.

Keywords: WIRE ROPE, WORK RULES, BROKEN CABLE, CONSTRUCTION, SCAFFOLD COLLAPSE, FALL, BRIDGE, SET UP, SCAFFOLD