Inspection Detail

Inspection: 120318969 - Tower Structures Inc.,

Inspection Information - Office: Van Nuys District Office

Investigation Summary

Employee #1 and several coworkers were dismantling a 180-foot communications tower. They had dismantled all but the lower section of the tower. This bottom section consisted of a 20-foot three-legged section which had been unbolted from three 5-foot concrete piers, placed upright on the ground, and rigged to a boom truck crane. According to Employee #1, he and another worker had climbed up the vertical legs of the tower and had reached the points where they were to unbolt the horizontal girts of the tower section. Both employees were wearing fall protection, which included harnesses and lanyards. Before Employee #1 unbolted his section, the Foreman, who was positioned on the ground on one of two forklifts, told him to go to the other side and unbolt that section first. Employee #1 then unhooked his lanyard from the anchor in the flange, wrapped the lanyard on the girt and began to "scoot across the girt." When he got to the area of the girt where the sling from the boom truck was attached, he was faced with the obstacle of getting around this sling. The hook on his lanyard which he needed to anchor to the girt, would not fit around the diameter of the girt, and he had not been provided with the proper equipment to enable him to anchor to the girt. He then unhooked his "fall restraint" lanyard, with the intention of wrapping it around the girt on the other side of the sling, to reposition himself on the other side of the rigging. Before he could hook the lanyard back into his "spreader bar," he fell off the girt, 20 feet to the ground. His injuries included three pelvic fractures, a fractured sacrum, three fractured ribs, and a fracture to his right wrist. He was hospitalized at Northridge Hospital for 6 or 7 days.

Keywords: FRACTURE, COMMUNICATION TOWER, PPE, PELVIS, RIB, FALL, FALL PROTECTION, TOWER