Inspection Detail

Inspection: 120298740 - Peterson Electric & Lighting Inc

Inspection Information - Office: Long Beach District Office

Investigation Summary

Employee #1 was working as an electrician for an electrical contractor. He was inside a warehouse that was attached to and on the backside of his employer's corporate office, repairing a garage door that was actuated with an automatic opener. The garage led to an alley on the backside of the facility. Employee #1 placed a 3-meter fiberglass step ladder inside the warehouse close to the garage door, near a forklift truck fitted with a cage. He was standing on the third rung of the ladder from the top. There was a bracket near the top of the garage door with an arm originating from the bracket and terminating in the garage door opener's drive chain, inside the chain guide. The arm and the bracket were bent from previous door jams, during which the door was not closing but the motor was still running. Accordingly, Employee #1 wanted to take out both the arm and the bracket to straighten the bends. Employee #1 removed one bolt, on the right side of the bracket, and when he removed a bolt from the arm, the door started going up, pulled by its return spring. The cylindrical helical spring, circular in cross section, was located just above the door. It was about 1.2 meters in length and approximately 100 millimeters in diameter. When the door started going up, the attached arm and bracket hit Employee #1's face, causing him to lose his balance and fall from the ladder onto the cage of the forklift next to the ladder. He bounced off the cage and fell onto the floor, landing on his knees. The tibia in his right leg was broken, his left kneecap was broken, with several cracks, and his right knee was also injured. Employee #1 was transported to St. Mary's Hospital, where he was hospitalized for approximately one month. The causal factors of the accident were that Employee #1 worked while standing on one of the top three rungs of the ladder without having structural members that provided a firm handhold, and that he worked without a personal fall protection system.

Keywords: FRACTURE, MAINTENANCE, ELECTRICIAN, LADDER, FALL, STRUCK BY, LOST BALANCE, LEG