Inspection Detail

Inspection: 301009353 - Agribest Roofing Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Wichita Area Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 10:00 a.m. on June 2, 1997, Employee #1 and five coworkers arrived at a grain elevator belonging to the Farmer's Co-op & Mercantile Association in Alamota, KS. The elevator was divided into two structures. From north to west, the first structure was composed of six silos to the south and six to the west, with a drive in between running east to west. Above the twelve silos was a headhouse. The second section of the structure consisted of eight silos. The two structures were connected at the top by the gallery running west to east from the headhouse to the end of the silos. The west end of the gallery coming from the headhouse to the roof of the eight silos was referred to as the walkway. It was suspended between the west and east structures and was constructed with an expansion joint at the east end, where it connected to the east silo structure. The gallery was approximately 94 ft long and 16 ft wide, and the roof was 8 ft 7 in. from the silo roofs. None of the workers had ever been to the top of this elevator. Their job was to remove old roofing on the gallery, headhouse, and other areas of the elevator. The foreman did not provide any instructions to the crew. None of the four workers actually working on the gallery roof were given any form of fall protection. The crew began to unload their materials and equipment to perform the job and, utilizing the elevator manlift, transported these materials to the headhouse. From the headhouse, four of the five workers, including Employee #1, walked through the gallery to the access doors on the east end of the gallery. Exiting out the doors onto the roof of the elevator, they set up their ladder and got up onto the roof of the gallery. From there, the workers dispersed to different sections of the roof and began to tear off the old roofing material. This involved using shovels to scrape the mastic materials from the subsurface, and knives to cut through the material to create starting points to either pull the materials loose by hand or shovels to scrape it in more firmly adhered to areas. According to the other three coworkers, Employee #1 was working in the southwest corner of the gallery roof moments before the accident and was talking with his closest coworker, and then there was silence. On the basis of statements provided during the investigation and the physical evidence such as loose material where he was working, it appears that Employee #1 was pulling up on a piece of roofing material and either slipped or lost his balance. He fell backward, possibly tripping over the expansion joint, and fell approximately 120 ft to the ground. Employee #1 was killed.

Keywords: ROOF, WORK RULES, SLIP, CONSTRUCTION, ROOFER, FALL, FALL PROTECTION, GRAIN ELEVATOR, LOST BALANCE, UNTRAINED