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If a proper and effective safety program was in place at the following companies
which ensured OSHA standards were being followed, the following near misses could
have been easily prevented. Please contact us with any questions.
- Compliance Officer Protects Employees from Trench Collapse
On June 7, while driving through Madison, Wis., Compliance Safety and Health Officer
(CSHO) Chad Greenwood of OSHA’s Madison area office observed work being performed
at an excavation site. The CSHO saw a potentially unsafe trench and stopped to initiate
an inspection. When the trench conditions were closely examined, the trench was
found to be unsupported and unstable. The CSHO warned the foreman that no one should
enter the trench. The contractor had been preparing to place an inlet box for a
storm sewer. During the opening conference with the employer, a portion of the trench
wall collapsed. Luckily, no one was hurt because of the CSHO’s quick actions. OSHA’s
Working Safely in Trenches QuickCard® (English/Spanish)
offers tips to employers and employees on improving workplace safety and health
while working in trenches.
- Compliance Officer Helps Protect Employees from Electrical Hazard
On April 17, while driving through a Chicago suburb, a compliance safety and health
officer (CSHO) from OSHA's Chicago North area office observed employees at a construction
site performing stucco work while atop metal scaffolding. The CSHO noticed that
they were exposed to an electrical hazard and stopped to initiate an inspection.
The CSHO discovered “hot” 120/240 secondary power lines were within two feet of
the scaffolding and asked the crew’s managers to remove the employees until the
lines could be de-energized by the local power company. They agreed to voluntarily
cease operation. Within four hours, the hazard was abated and the employees safely
returned to work. OSHA’s Supported Scaffold QuickCard® (English/Spanish)
offers safety tips on working with scaffolding.
- Quick Action and Safety Harnesses Avert Falls
On Aug. 22, Compliance Safety and Health Officer Anthony Nozzi of OSHA's North Aurora, Ill., Area Office,
while driving by a Chicago-area residential construction site, observed employees
working at approximately 30 feet above grade performing roofing work. He stopped
at the worksite and saw an employee trip on a slide guard and nearly fall off the
roof -- the employee caught himself on the side of a chimney. Nozzi initiated an
inspection and asked the employer to cease work until employees were provided adequate
fall protection.
In an unrelated incident the next day, two Primasteelisa Company employees were
10 stories up inspecting the façade of a building in downtown Chicago when the motor
to the scaffold they were working from stalled and caused it to tilt. The safety
harnesses they wore kept them from falling. Within 30 minutes, the motor started
working again, and the employees lowered themselves safely to the ground.
OSHA's Fall Protection Tips QuickCard (English/Spanish)
can be downloaded from the agency's Web site on the
QuickCards page, or obtained by calling the publications office
at (202) 693-1888.
- Quick Action by OSHA Compliance Officer Protects Employees from Electrical Hazard
On Saturday, July 15, while driving through Prospect Heights, Ill., OSHA Compliance
Safety and Health Officer Gary Weil of OSHA's Chicago North Area Office spotted
three employees at a construction site performing masonry work from tubular-welded
frame scaffolding. Weil saw they were exposed to fall hazards and stopped to initiate
an inspection. He discovered a "hot" power line was within 12 inches of the scaffolding
and asked the crew's foreman to remove the employees so the line could be de-energized
by the local power company. The inspection stems from an OSHA
local emphasis program targeting falls hazards in construction. OSHA Supported Scaffold QuickCard (English/Spanish)
offers safety tips on working with scaffolding.
- Employees Removed from Excavation Site Minutes Before Collapse
OSHA's role in the life of the American worker was exhibited once again when, at
10 a.m. on the morning of June 6 in Brooklyn, N.Y., OSHA compliance safety and health
officer Bob Stewart requested that six construction employees be removed from a
22-foot deep excavation due to the hazardous 10-ton concrete abutment hanging above
it. Fifteen minutes later, the overhang collapsed and fell, landing in the exact
spot in which the employees had been working. Stewart is a safety specialist assigned
to OSHA's Manhattan Area Office in New York.
- Workers Removed From Construction Site Minutes Before Roof Collapse
Three workers were removed from a Cleveland-area construction project within minutes
of a roof collapse on April 10 by OSHA Compliance Officer Joe Schwarz of OSHA's Cleveland Area Office and
Medina County Building Inspector Art Verdoorn. In response to an anonymous complaint
to both organizations, the men coincidentally made a surprise visit to the construction
site of a preschool on Normandy Park Rd. The exterior walls were up and half the
roof was on, but the structure was not braced properly. Some workers were on the
high beams and some inside. The building inspector, with Schwarz's concurrence,
issued a stop-work order, and ordered the workers removed just before the roof fell
in and walls collapsed.
- Should one doubt the wisdom of using fall protection during construction, you might
want to ask one fortunate construction worker from Michigan-based National Riggers
and Erectors. Last September, while working at the Lambeau Field Renovation project
in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the worker slipped from a steal beam - six stories above
ground. Thanks to his use of full fall protection, serious injury - or death - was
avoided. He was back at work shortly after his rescue. Less than two months later,
a second worker slipped from a beam, but also escaped injury because of his fall
protection equipment. Like his predecessor, he returned to work the same day. OSHA
has a Strategic Partnership agreement with Turner Construction, the Lambeau Field
general contractor, which requires 100 percent use of fall protection above six
feet. Strict adherence to that requirement has saved two lives in the first year
of the project. (Photos of the incident, taken by Turner Construction Safety Director
Steve Lafkas, are below.
- "Get out of that trench," OSHA Inspector Robert Dickinson ordered a worker in an
unshored, unsloped, unsafe trench by the side of the road near El Paso, Texas. Good
thing El Paso Assistant Area Director Mario Solano had spotted the trench earlier
on September 13, 2001 and sent Dickinson and Elias Casillas to check it out. Because
30 seconds after the employee left the trench, the wall near where he had been standing
collapsed. Heeding the compliance officer's warning and order to leave the trench
kept the worker from experiencing a serious, perhaps life-threatening injury.
- While investigating the death of an aerial lift operator on September 11, 2001,
OSHA inspector Rich LeVinus from the Concord, New Hampshire Area Office helped prevent
another serious injury or fatality. An aerial lift had rolled off the side of a
flat bed truck, catapulting the operator to the ground, resulting in his death.
A tow truck operator was preparing to bring the lift upright, and LeVinus realized
that doing so could cause the aerial lift to shift and possibly swing into the driver's
side of the tow truck. He insisted that the tow truck driver use the passenger side
controls to winch up the aerial lift, possibly saving the driver's life when the
basket of the aerial lift did indeed strike the driver's side of the tow truck.
- Workers on a deteriorating floor at a building undergoing demolition in Chicago
in July also appreciated OSHA's intervention. Following a complaint about the site,
Calumet City's Vince Blakemore visited and found workers standing on deteriorating
flooring, joists and support beams while demolishing the second level of the building.
He told the owner to get workers off the rickety second story and find another method
of demolition. The owner responded to Blakemore's concern and complied with OSHA's
request immediately, moving the workers to the first level in another section of
the building. Thank goodness, because the very next day the building collapsed-right
where the workers had been.
- Following OSHA standards prevents tragedies every day. In Houston, on August 8,
2001, two window washers were suspended from the Baker Hughes building when their
scaffold broke, leaving them dangling high above the ground. But they were hooked
to the proper safety equipment
and so they remained aloft until firefighters rescued
them-a happy ending. Had they not followed OSHA's required safety procedures and
tied off separately from the scaffold, they would likely have plunged to the earth
with tragic results.
Please call 1-877-620-SAFE now and ask to speak to someone about safety consulting.
It may be the best business decision you will ever make.
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