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Scaffold Fall Accident

Construction related accidents are among the most common in the United States. The number of workers losing their lives due to fall accidents is staggering (OSHA, n.d.). In January 6, 2014 a man who fell while working on a construction site in Seattle (Kiro TV, 2014). The worker tripped and fell off scaffolding. The fall was about 50 feet. According to close sources, it is possible that the man fell because he had loosened his harness to move to the next of the building. It is believed that the man tripped and fell while trying to move. He was rushed for treatment but died later. Officials claim they have been on the same construction site twice, and no safety violations have been seen.

Based on the story, it is possible that the fall was caused by poor judgment and weak protection equipment. In the past, reports of safety violations have been reported. In response, officials visited the construction sites. They did not find any safety violation in all the two times they visited the site. After reading the story, I thought that the accident is the result of poor judgment, inadequate understanding of safety equipment use and poor orientation of new workers. The man who fell had reported to work for the first day. Therefore, it is possible that he did not understand the use of safety equipment very well. Possibly the harness might have been too weak or too short, which is why he had to remove it to move. The first thoughts focused on the most obvious causes of the accident (Kiro TV, 2014)t. Fall accidents are among the most frequent accidents in the construction industry. They involve the fall of objects on people or the fall of people from high places. In most cases, construction fall accidents lead to death.

The first thoughts in my mind about fall protection are that they should be reliable and comprehensive. According to OSHA guidelines, a scaffold should guardrail systems, or a worker should have personal arrest systems. It ensures that even tripping would not lead to a fall. In this case, the claim that the worker might have tripped made me question the validity of the personal arrest systems the employee was using. How long was the harness for him to remove it in order to move? I also questioned if the scaffold had guardrails or not. All these factors point to the quality of protection that was present at the site.

In conclusion, the cause of the accident is related to the quality of the personal arrest systems and guardrails in the scaffold. It is also related to the competency of the worker because if he truly removed the harness at high then it was a very unsafe act. In many instances, unsafe acts always lead to injury or death. Scaffold fall protection should cover all open sites. The personal arrests systems should be strong and long enough. All open sides should be adequately covered to ensure tripping would not lead to fall.

References

Kiro TV. (2014, January 7). Man dies after falling 50 feet at Seattle construction site. Retrieved from Kirotv.com: http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/man-badly-hurt-downtown-construction-site/ncdbZ/

OSHA. (n.d.). Fall Protection. Retrieved from OSHA: https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/scaffolding/supported/frame/fallprotection.html