Municipal lead custodian dies in fall from mobile scaffolding.
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 11MA008, 2012 Jan; :1-9
Abstract
On March 27, 2011 a 69-year-old male municipal custodian (victim) was fatally injured while painting an interior section of a school lobby. The victim went to the school alone early on a Sunday morning to finish painting the lobby area that was previously started. Although the incident was un-witnessed, it appears that the victim was on mobile scaffolding when he fell from the scaffolding landing on the lobby floor. The victim was found by a co-worker later that same day when the co-worker had opened the school to let in two cooks for a fundraiser event that was going to take place that afternoon. The co-worker immediately placed a call for Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Within minutes EMS and the local police arrived at the incident location and the victim was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. The Massachusetts FACE Program concluded that to prevent similar occurrences in the future, schools should: 1. Ensure scaffolds are erected according to the manufacturer's guidelines and OSHA standards; 2. Ensure that fall protection is available and used by employees exposed to fall hazards; 3. Implement a buddy system for custodial staff to limit working alone from heights during off hours; 4. Conduct a job safety analysis (JSA) for custodial tasks to ensure proper practices and procedures are implemented enabling the task to be performed safely; 5. Provide all custodial staff with training on scaffolding and ladders that are used to complete tasks; 6. Ensure that custodial departments develop, implement, and enforce a comprehensive health and safety program; and 7. Provide work environments that, at a minimum, meet all relevant Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations and industry accepted standards of practice per the Department of Labor Standards' policy.
Keywords
Region-1; Accident-analysis; Accident-potential; Accident-prevention; Accidents; Construction-equipment; Injuries; Injury-prevention; Safety-education; Safety-measures; Safety-practices; Safety-programs; Training; Traumatic-injuries; Work-practices; Personal-protective-equipment; Personal-protection; Protective-equipment; Protective-measures; Fall-protection; Scaffolds
Document Type
Field Studies; Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation
Funding Type
Cooperative Agreement
NTIS Accession No.
PB2012-111927
Identifying No.
FACE-11MA008; Cooperative-Agreement-Number-U60-CCU-108704; B07092012
Source Name
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Performing Organization
Massachusetts Department of Health
