Time to tie off
by Bill Steinmetz
Winter definitely had arrived. Tom, a foreman at Edwin Roofing, saw that many inches of heavy, wet snow had fallen overnight. On his way to work, Tom wondered if his crew would work that day.
Wendell, Edwin Roofing's owner, greeted Tom as he walked through the office door. He told Tom he wanted to have a repair
crew available in case someone called complaining about a leaking roof system. He told Tom to have
his crew begin
working on general equipment upkeep in the meantime.
While Tom and his crew cleaned kettles, an apprentice became ill. Tom told the apprentice to go home because it seemed as if it would be a slow day. But about a half hour after the apprentice left, Wendell paged Tom.
Wendell said the company had received two telephone calls about leaking roof systems, but they were on opposite sides of town. One repair job was at a hospital, and the other was at a manufacturing plant.
Tom explained to Wendell that an apprentice had gone home ill, leaving him with only two workers. Tom said he would send them to the hospital repair job and he would go to the manufacturing plant.
Tom told the two employees about the leak at the hospital. He stressed that they should drive cautiously
because of the weather and be especially careful when working on the roof system. He said that even though they can access the roof through a roof hatch, they should take a ladder just in case there is too much snow to lift the hatch.
When Tom arrived at the plant, Tony, the building engineer, told Tom the roof hatch was covered with snow and the only way to access the roof was by ladder. Tom went to his truck, grabbed a ladder, leaned it against the building and climbed to the roof.
Once he got on the roof, he saw about 12 inches (305 mm) of snow. He climbed down the ladder to get
a snow shovel. After getting back on the roof, he proceeded to the area where he suspected the leak was located. To find the leak's source,
Tom had to remove a 5-square-foot (0.45-m2) area of snow.
Tom then had to climb back down to get some patching materials. Unfortunately, as he stepped onto the ladder, he lost his balance. He tried to regain it, but the ladder shifted and began to slide. Panicking, Tom jumped.
About 20 minutes later, Tony went to check on Tom. As Tony rounded the building's corner, he saw the ladder lying on the ground and Tom lying in a pool of blood. Tony yelled for someone to call an ambulance.
After paramedics arrived and took Tom to the hospital, Tony called Edwin Roofing and told Wendell the news. Wendell immediately went to the hospital.
By the time Wendell arrived, Tom had passed away from severe head injuries and internal damage. After notifying Tom's family, Wendell called the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) because it requires that he notify the agency within eight hours of a death. Alex, an OSHA inspector, asked Wendell to meet her at the job site so she could investigate.
On the way to the project, Wendell called Tony and asked him to leave everything at the accident scene untouched. Once Wendell and Alex arrived at the project, they saw the ladder lying on the ground.
Alex asked Wendell if she could see the company's safety program,
all training documentation and its OSHA 200 log. Wendell replied
that because he did not have the materials with him, he would bring the documents to her office the next day. Wendell then asked Alex if Edwin Roofing would receive a citation. Alex replied that because a fatality had occurred, there was a good chance Edwin Roofing would get one.
About a month later, Edwin Roofing received a citation from OSHA_the company was charged with two violations. The first one indicated there had been lack of training for ladder usage and safety. The second violation stated that because the ladder had not extended 3 feet (0.9 m) above the building, it should have been either tied-off or a grab rail should have been provided.
Both violations upset Wendell because he had conducted some ladder safety training, but it was not documented. Also, everyone at Edwin Roofing knew company policy requires that all ladders be tied-off, but that was not documented either.Wendell decided to update his safety program to make sure all training was documented. Also, he
established a disciplinary program that would hold all employees accountable for their actions on each project; the program also stated all safety regulations must be followed. In addition, Wendell would try to visit job sites more frequently and inspect each project thoroughly. This would help ensure proper safety measures were being taken.
The penalties for the violations were expensive, and the loss of a friend and valued employee was a steep price to pay for an accident that could have been avoided.
Bill Steinmetz is NRCA's risk-management consultant. This column uses fictitious case histories to introduce important loss-control principles. The details for these case histories are not meant to represent any particular occurrence. Any similarities to persons living or actual events are purely coincidental.
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