Inspection Detail

Inspection: 300875028 - Michael Mcneilly

Inspection Information - Office: Los Angeles District Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 10:30 a.m. on January 12, 2011, Employee #1 was working on a scaffold applying a color coat of stucco on an existing one-story, single-family residence. Employee #1, along with three other coworkers, had been hired that morning from an informal labor pool located in Culver City. There were four workers, including Employee #1, and one foreman at the site at the time of inspection. The foreman was the property owner's gardener, who had hired the employees out of the informal labor pool at the property owner's request. Three of the workers were engaged in landscaping work, and Employee #1 was on a scaffold applying a color coat of stucco to the residence. The scaffold on site was comprised of parts from a rolling scaffold and had been field modified to fit the topography of the work area. The scaffold legs were precariously leveled on small wood shims that were stacked on standard concrete blocks. The working level Employee #1 was working on was one 20-inch wide BilJax manufactured plank that had been placed on the top rail of the scaffold. The plank was found to be missing one of the attachment hooks, and as a result, it was only supported from three attachment points spanning the top rail of the scaffold. At the time of the accident, one of the other workers on the site handed Employee # a cellphone, and when Employee #1 reached for the cellphone, the plank shifted and threw Employee #1 forward and ejected him from the scaffold. The worker fell 10 feet, 6 inches to the concrete walkway and suffered multiple fractures of his skull, a neck fracture and a severed superior sagittal sinus vein. Paramedics transported him to Cedars Sinai hospital, where he died at 1:39 p.m. while in surgery.

Keywords: FRACTURE, SKULL, FALL, FALL PROTECTION, NECK, SCAFFOLD RIGGING, SCAFFOLD