Inspection Detail

Inspection: 307030080 - Alarm Relay

Inspection Information - Office: San Diego District Office

Investigation Summary

On March 5, 2005, Employee #1 was working as an alarm technician for Alarm Relay, a company that installed and serviced security alarms, in San Diego, CA. The accident site was a two-story residential condominium, where Employee #1 was installing some surveillance cameras. Employee #1 was up on a 28-foot glass fiber extension ladder, which was extended to a length of approximately 17 feet. He had the ladder set up near the back corner of the structure, with the top of the ladder under the structure's eaves. Employee #1 was about four rungs below the top of the ladder, reaching for some wires to install a camera on the patio. Trying to reach the last piece of wire to route into a flexible conduit, he reached out with his left hand too far and lost his balance. He fell off the ladder to his left. He did not fall to the ground, which would have been a fall of 12 to 14 feet, but instead approximately four feet to the top of the patio roof. Employee #1's ladder was set up three to four feet away from the patio roof. He had to have been quite outstretched from the centerline of the ladder in order to have fallen onto the patio roof and not the ground below. Employee #1 was working with two other alarm technicians. His first coworker was working outside the building, routing wires about 20 feet from Employee #1. He did not see the accident. A second coworker worker was on the ground about two feet from the base of the ladder. He was feeding flexible conduit to the first coworker and heard a thump, but he did not see Employee #1 fall. Employee #1 was admitted to Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, CA, for a fractured right ankle. A General violation was issued for the 3280, for not following ANSI Standard A14.5 1992 regarding overreaching on a ladder. A General violation was issued for a lack of ladder safety training for Employee #1, and a Regulatory violation of 342(a) was issued for late reporting.

Keywords: FRACTURE, EXTENSION LADDER, ROOF, ALARM, LADDER, ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT, ELECTRONIC TECHNICN, FALL, LOST BALANCE, UNSTABLE POSITION