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

Title 40.1-51.1(A) Code of Virginia: The employer, Arlington County, Department of Environmental Services, did not furnish employment and a place of employment which was free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious bodily harm to employees in that an employee was exposed to moving vehicular traffic while working outside the work zone. At the job site, located at Columbia Pike and S. Wakefield Street, Arlington, Virginia, employees were performing traffic signal maintenance from an Altec AT-30-G telescopic aerial device mounted on a 2009 Ford F-450 chassis. The truck was parked in the right shoulder lane of eastbound Columbia Pike and the employee was working in the bucket over the left eastbound lane, which was open to vehicular traffic. A 2007 Freightliner moving van traveling east on Columbia Pike struck the bucket of the aerial device. The bucket and the employee were thrown forward and spun into a traffic signal pole. The employee suffered fatal injuries. One feasible and acceptable abatement method to correct this hazard is for the employer to require employees working over a roadway to close those lanes. The Virginia Work Area Protection Manual, dated May 2005, states in 6G-10, "When work is being performed over a roadway open to traffic (on bridges, overhead signs, traffic signals, etc.) the traveled lane(s) or shoulder that the work operation is over shall be closed, unless it is physically improbable materials, equipment or personnel could fall into the open lane or shoulder."