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Accident: 202503280 - Employee Injured When Struck By Collapsing Brick Wall

Accident: 202503280 -- Report ID: 0352430 -- Event Date: 11/06/2007
InspectionOpen DateSICEstablishment Name
31151623111/06/20071799Addus Group
On November 6, 2007, Employee #1 and coworkers were using a Brute/Bosch 288-C9 jackhammer to remove a 13 in. to 18 in. thick by 67 in. long by 9.5 ft tall non-load-bearing brick wall in the sub-basement of a building. Two of the coworkers were standing on a 4 ft high by 7 ft long by 28 in. wide job-built platform. One of these workers jackhammered while the other held the jackhammer's support rope. Employee #1 and another coworker were collecting the bricks when they fell to the ground, putting them in trash cans and taking them to dump down a trash chute. The operators of the jackhammer would stop so they could collect the bricks, then resume when they had collected a load. The coworkers were jackhammering at the bottom of the wall, and the wall was approximately 85 percent demolished, when they stopped and stepped back from the wall to allow Employee #1 to collect some loose bricks. He was bending down when the remainder of the brick wall collapsed on him. He sustained multiple injuries, and was transported to the University of Maryland Hospital. The foreman later stated that he was instructed by the company vice-president to take down the wall from the top to the bottom. The coworkers were having difficulty taking down the wall in the sub-basement, so the foreman instructed them to start jackhammering from the bottom. The foreman later stated that he knew that it was best to start demolishing a wall from the top, but he did what was best for him, and he said that he got better results jackhammering from the bottom. Coworkers later stated that there was no specific way that the wall was to be taken down, and that the foreman and the jackhammer workers came up with their own ideas on how to take down the wall. The accident resulted from not having a specific demolition plan to take down the wall.
Keywords: wall, demolition, collapse, work rules, construction, jackhammer, vibrations, struck by, falling object
End Use Proj Type Proj Cost Stories NonBldgHt Fatality
Commercial building Demolition $250,000 to $500,000 10
Employee # Inspection Age Sex Degree Nature Occupation
1 311516231 Hospitalized injury Fracture Occupation not reported

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