Inspection Detail

Inspection: 310215454 - Tied Right Steel, Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Fort Lauderdale Area Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 9:15 a.m. on February 9, 2007, an employee, a Hispanic laborer who did not speak or understand the English language, was attached to the structural steel frame with the use of a personal fall arrest system while lowering the same vertically approximately 4-inches onto a horizontal concrete beam. The structural steel frame overturned and fell with the employee approximately 35-feet to ground level, crushing and killing the employee. The company records indicated that the employee was trained in using a personal fall protection system, but was not trained on the procedures to follow, when erecting, maintaining, disassembling, and inspecting an anchorage for attachment of a personal fall arrest system. Additionally, employee interviews revealed that the employee was not trained to recognize hazards associated with reinforcing steel bar and post tension work. This was a normal routine portion of the employee's job and was performed frequently, approximately 2-3 times per day. The employee had been employed as a rod buster by this company for 3 months and had performed this job since he was hired. There were no contributing weather variables; it was clear and hot with little to no precipitation. The company did have a fall protection plan in place that required the use of fall protection at 6-feet.

Keywords: FRACTURE, STEEL ERECTION, FALL, FALL PROTECTION, OVERTURN