Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 001A 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 the hazards of falling 40 ft to the ground below from the fourth floor: a)Fourth Floor, South Side of The Building - A supervisor, pressure washing the side of the building, fell 40 feet to the ground below. Deficiencies in the employer's work safety and fall protection plan resulted in the supervisor falling 4 floors, including, but not limited to: failure to ensure that suspended work was not performed unless it was determined that the building had provided, identified and certified anchorages complying with Section 9 and 10 of ANSI/IWCA I-14.- 2001 for independent safety lines and primary support anchorage for rope descent system for manual boatswain's chair. Among other methods, a feasible and acceptable abatement method to correct these hazards is as follows: 1) Prior to commencing suspended work, inspect the surface for structural anchorage points that are capable of supporting the intended loads in accordance with ANSI/IWCA I-14.1-2002; instruct employees in the proper use of these anchorages and all equipment provided them; and supervise the use of the equipment and devices to ensure that safe working practices are observed, on or about 04/17/18. b)Fourth Floor, South Side of the Building - A supervisor, pressure washing the side of the building fell 40 ft to the ground below. The supervisor's life line was connected to the suspension device for the rope descent system instead of an independent anchor point. Both the primary safety line for the descent control system and employee life line were attached to the track style anchor system. The practice of attaching both the life line and the employee safety line of the supervisor's descent control system to the same anchor point exposes employees to the hazard of a fall since a single failure of the device could cause a worker to fall. Among other methods, a feasible and acceptable abatement method to correct these hazards is as follows: 1) Use of a full body harness; rope grab or similar device; lifeline; and anchorage (all of which are completely independent of the friction device and its support seat (or harness), support line, or anchorage system will not affect the ability of the fall arrest system to operate and quickly stop the employee's fall. Use of a horizontal line attached securely to substantial members of the building structure could serve as a separate and independent anchor point for the employee life line, on or about 04/17/08