Inspection Detail

Inspection: 2812709 - Cumberland Valley Builders

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

Investigation Summary

At about 10:00 a.m. on July 2, 1986, Employee #1 was part of a crew that was constructing an 8-unit townhouse. The units, from west to east, were numbered 49 through 56. Employee #1 was on a truss on unit 51, and two coworkers were on a truss on unit 50. Employees were installing pieces of lateral bracing in preparation for the installation of roof sheeting. One of the coworkers on the unit 50 truss and Employee #1 saw the north (roof) wall of unit 51, the bearing support for the trusses, fall to the ground. This caused all the trusses of units 51 through 56 to collapse to the second floor in a domino effect. Employee #1 fell to the second floor and was struck by the falling trusses. Each unit had eleven 34 foot wooden trusses installed, each weighing 218 lb, and having a 6:12 pitch. They were designed in compliance with the Truss Plate Institute's specification, TPI 1978. An investigation revealed that during the erection and bracing of the trusses the employer had not complied with the recommendations of the Truss Plate Institute for installing wooden roof trusses, specifically lateral and diagonal bracing of the three places of reference in a roof system to ensure stability: top chord, web member, and bottom chord. The collapse of the trusses is directly attributable to the failure to comply with the bracing recommendations of the Truss Plate Institute. The employer does provide ppe as needed.

Keywords: TRUSS, INSTALLING, COLLAPSE, WORK RULES, CONSTRUCTION, FALL, BRACING, FALLING OBJECT