Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 001 Hazard: FALLING

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 falls and death from delayed rescue: a)Employees traversing steel while performing associated intermediate section assembly operations on the tower without fall protection devices or systems being utilized exposing employees to fall hazards in excess of 25.0 feet were exposed to the hazard of compounding physical injury and/or death while awaiting rescue from elevated work locations in that: (1) The employer had not established a rescue plan nor was equipment provided for retrieval from elevated locations in the event expedited removal was necessary; (2) Proximal emergency medical services were not contacted for capabilities of providing high angle/location rescue, prior to employee exposure; (3) Employees were not trained in the methods and procedures utilized for rapid evacuation from elevated locations (high angle rescue). One means of abatement among others, is to: (1) Establish a rescue procedure including training for employees and the acquisition and usage of a controlled descent device to allow a controlled lowering of an injured employee; (2) Pre-planning to include the capabilities of localized fire/rescue services for equipment availability (height), high angle rescue capability, and their response time to the worksite.