Inspection Detail

Inspection: 314827452 - Americana United Builders Corporation

Inspection Information - Office: Van Nuys District Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 9:52 a.m. on November 2, 2011, an employee was working as a masonry worker and day laborer. The employer at the site where the work was being done was the Americana United Builders Corporation. It was the general contractor. It apportioned some of the work out to an unlicensed subcontractor and mason crew foreman. The injured employee had been working at the construction site for less than 2 weeks. He was performing the duties of a masonry day laborer, and he was working for the subcontractor. Workers for the subcontractor had moved a three-tier scaffold over a bit so that a forklift could be brought into the atrium of the building. The scaffold had been inspected by the general contractor. When the scaffold was moved from its original position, planks on its third tier were no longer resting on the ledges that had previously provided support. At the time of the accident, the employee was performing his regularly assigned task of laying masonry bricks and cinder blocks while standing on a scaffold. The employee was walking on the scaffold in that area, when he stepped on an unsupported plank. The plank fell, and the employee fell with it, approximately 20 feet (6.1 meters) onto the ground. He sustained fractures, and he was taken to USC Medical Center. He was hospitalized for 19 days. The Division was notified by the Burbank fire department of the accident on November 2, 2011. It initiated an inspection on November 3, 2011.

Keywords: FRACTURE, CONSTRUCTION, PLANK, BRICK, FALL, ELEVATED WORK PLAT, SCAFFOLD