Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 001 Hazard: STRUCK BY

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: The %% employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to collapsing masonry wall: a) On March 5, 1986, an unsupported, non-loadbearing concrete block wall was under construction at the National Food Store jobsite on Gannon Drive, Festus, Missouri. This was the south wall of the building being constructed, running east and west, measuring one-hundred and six (106) feet in length by approximately seventy-one (71) pounds apiece. The employees were laying blocks from a Morgan scaffold, located on the south side of the wall, approximately sixteen (16) feet from the ground. A sudden gust of high wind exerted horizontal pressure on the north side of the wall, causing the western-most fifty-four foot section of the wall to collapse on the employees working on the scaffold. Among other methods, one feasible and acceptable abatement method to correct this hazard is temporary bracing or shoring of unsupported masonry walls under construction when built higher than ten (10) times their thickness.