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 the hazard of falling from the metal plate connected wood roof trusses that were subject to potential movement due to the lack of proper temporary bracing. Employees were also exposed to the hazard of being struck by falling metal plate connected wood roof trusses that may experience movement, and/or collapse, due to the lack of proper temporary bracing: a) At the construction site of the Bank of America building located at 10840 Miromar Outlet Drive, Estero, Florida. The metal plate connected wood roof trusses which were being installed, on or about 9/6/03, were not installed with the proper required temporary bracing. Short 30 inch pieces of 2x4 lumber were used between adjacent trusses for spacing and temporary bracing. All bracing connections were not made with a minimum of 2-16d nails. The top chords of the roof trusses were not provided with the proper required lateral and diagonal temporary bracing. A registered professional engineer did not provide the necessary information for the lateral and diagonal bracing when the truss span was more than 60 feet. One feasible and acceptable abatement method to correct these hazards is to install the roof trusses in accordance the Truss Plate Institutes recommendations which are contained in "HIB-91, Recommendations For Handling, Installing and Bracing Metal Plate Connected Wood Trusses". The truss manufacturer provides a copy of the "HIB-91 Summary Sheet" with the delivery of the truss information, and their Design Criteria refers to the HIB-91 for proper handling, installing and bracing. The Standard Building Code also refers to the HIB-91 for handling, installing and bracing of metal plate connected wood trusses.