Maintenance worker killed in 25-foot fall from I-beam.
Authors
Kentucky Department of Health Services
Source
Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 96KY049, 1996 Nov; :1-4
A 25-year-old maintenance worker at a steel distribution company died as the result of a fall from a steel I-beam he had repeatedly climbed to reach the top of a disabled crane. This worker and another had been attempting to repair the crane, and had found it necessary to climb up and down several times for various reasons (see below). Each time the victim had shimmied down and back up the I-beam rather than using the fixed ladder some distance away. When the fall occurred, he was on his way back up and somehow lost his grip on the beam. Emergency medical assistance was summoned immediately and the victim was airlifted to a nearby hospital where he died the following day. In order to prevent similar incidents, FACE investigators recommend that employers should: 1. train employees in the recognition of hazards, and methods to control such hazards, including the use of appropriate safety equipment; 2. ensure that workers continually adhere to the safe work procedures established by the employer, and actively encourage workers to participate in workplace safety; 3. routinely conduct both scheduled and unscheduled safety inspections; 4. evaluate their current safety program and incorporate specific training procedures emphasizing the importance of following safety guidelines; and, 5. ensure that adequate fall protection equipment is provided to and used by employees whenever work is performed from an elevation where the potential for a fall exists.
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.