Inspection Detail

Inspection: 308060391 - Resource Builders, Llc

Inspection Information - Office: Oklahoma City Area Office

Investigation Summary

On November 13, 2004, Employee #1 and a coworker were dismantling scaffold after the construction of a 180-foot water tank. The two employees were bringing down the scaffold one level at a time, checking the welded seams, and removing the scaffold frame lugs that were welded on the tank wall. Both employees were wearing safety belts which they tied off to a cable that ran around the end of the scaffold's rectangular frames. A steel cable was attached to poles at the end of the scaffold frames. As they "jumped" the scaffold down, the employees placed a second set of scaffold frames on the level below them. One of the employees would then go down to the lower level and stand on the scaffold frames. The other employee would stay on the upper level and remove the poles holding the steel cable and pass them down to the employee on the lower level. The employee on the upper level would then remove the planks and pass them down to the employee on the lower level. The two levels were approximately six feet apart. During this process, the employees did not have the cable to tie-off to, since it had been removed from the upper level and it was not setup on the lower level until after all the planks had been placed. The employees would tie-off to whatever was available to them. Employee #1 fell from the scaffold and was killed.

Keywords: FRACTURE, DISMANTLING, CONSTRUCTION, FALL, FALL PROTECTION, SCAFFOLD