Inspection Detail

Inspection: 313438806 - Pacific Coast Steel

Inspection Information - Office: Nv-E-Las Vegas 0953220

Investigation Summary

On June 23, 2009, Employees #1, #2, #3, #4 and #5 were assigned to finish putting together a casino cage that had been left unfinished from the previous Monday. On Monday the employees had finished a significant percentage of the cage. The employees had placed seven vertical bars on top of dunnage. They then placed seven template rings on top of the vertical bars at 11 feet intervals then tied the template rings to the vertical bars. The employees then filled up the outer template ring to about eighty percent capacity with the seventy feet vertical bars. When employees started to work the following day, they initially completed filling the template rings with the rest of the vertical bars. They then began to install the inner racking vertical U-bars on two or three of the template rings. With the insufficient vertical support of the vertical U-bars, which should have been put in right after they installed the template rings, the cage collapsed with the five employees completely pinned by the reinforcing steel. Two coworkers who were nearby, together with the crane operator, managed to position the crane so that they could extricate the employees from inside of the cage. A forklift was also used to lift up the east end of the cage for rescue. Together with the two coworkers that were first to arrive at the scene and other coworkers that were in the area, five bars on the north side of the cage were removed so that the Emergency Response Technicians, EMT could have better access to the employees injured in the cage. When the EMTs arrived on site they administered to the employees and then transported the employees to the hospital to address their injuries. All five employees were hospitalized and treated for cuts.

Keywords: COLLAPSE, CAUGHT BETWEEN, LACERATION