Inspection Detail

Inspection: 102256625 - Performance Contractors

Inspection Information - Office: Baton Rouge Area Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 8:20 a.m. on March 1, 1993, Employee #1, supervisor of the pipefitters for Performance Contracting, while discussing the next task to be performed with a coworker, instructed the coworker to follow him. In an effort to get a better view of breathing air pipes that had just been installed and needed to be leak tested, Employee #1 led the coworker up the steps and over a gate that was wired shut with 9 gauge wire. They then climbed through scaffold bars that were wrapped with red danger tape, which were used as a barricade to prevent access by the general workforce to the platform under construction. The coworker said that he mentally questioned crossing the barricade because the training that they had received strongly stated that one should never cross a danger barricade. But the coworker did not express that thought to his supervisor and followed him. Once they were on the platform, they crawled under two pipes and took a few steps to look up at the pipes to be tested. The coworker said that he stopped and was looking up the pipes while Employee #1 continued to walk. He then said that he heard a scream, looked in the general direction of the scream, and saw Employee #1 falling off the side of the platform while at the same time trying to grasp something to catch himself. The guardrails had not been installed; therefore, there was nothing for Employee #1 to grab. He fell approximately 20 ft to a concrete floor. Employee #1 suffered lacerations to the head, broken ribs, a punctured left lung, and a collapsed right lung. He was taken to the hospital, where he died six days later on March 7, 1993.

Keywords: PLATFORM, FRACTURE, GUARDRAIL, WORK RULES, CONSTRUCTION, LACERATION, FALL, FALL PROTECTION, UNGUARDED, INATTENTION