Inspection Detail

Inspection: 300780244 - Clares Roofing Service

Inspection Information - Office: Long Beach District Office

Investigation Summary

At 9:00 a.m. on October 11, 2002, an accident occurred at a building site where Employee #1 sustained a serious injury to his head and a fractured left hand when he fell through a roof skylight. Clares Roofing Service is engaged in providing roofing services. Employee #1's father, the owner of the company, said that Employee #1 had worked on and off for him for the last five years. His duties are assigned to him by his father and by the foreman. His work hours are determined by the job. Employee #1 was assigned to do finishing detail work on roofing operations. His primary duties were to do the finish detail work and to evaluate the jobs to make sure that they were done to specification. On the day of the accident, Employee #1's job was to apply mastic to the edges of the 25 skylights on the roof. The other roofers had already put a new base coat, ply, and cap coats of composition roofing material on the roof. At the time of the accident, there were three other roofers on the roof finishing the re-roofing of the parapet on the east side of the roof, 113 feet from the skylight where Employee #1 was applying mastic to the open edges of the skylight. There was no guarding on the skylight. Near the end of the day, an employee from the business inside the building came up to the roof to inform the foreman that one of the roofing employees had fallen through the skylight and was lying on the floor of the warehouse, 20.5 feet below the roof. Employee #1 suffered a fractured skull and a fractured arm. After the accident occurred, Employee #1 was taken to Los Angeles County General Hospital where he was operated on to relieve pressure on his brain. After a stay at Los Angeles County General Hospital, Employee #1 was taken to Northridge Hospital where he stayed for approximately 4 months.

Keywords: SKYLIGHT, FRACTURE, ROOF, SKULL, ROOFER, FALL, ARM, UNGUARDED