Fall from a Telecommunications Tower
A worker was climbing down a 400-foot telecommunications tower when he lost his footing. The ladder safety device or system (consisting of the carabiner, carrier rail, safety sleeve and body harness) he used failed to arrest his fall. The safety sleeve did not activate correctly to stop the worker's fall, the chest D-ring ripped out of the body harness, and he plunged 90 feet to his death.
Likely Causes of Incident
OSHA cited the company with four egregious willful, 12 willful, 36 serious and two other-than-serious violations with total penalties of $1,232,500.
Ensure you have all the correct safety equipment on hand.
- The worker did not receive proper training on the ladder safety device he used.
- The pawl of the sleeve was defective. The defect prevented the device from activating properly to stop a fall within 2 feet (.61 meters) of its occurrence (29 CFR 1926.1053(a)(22)(iii)). This was identified in a safety notice issued after the incident and as a result of OSHA's investigation.
- The weight of the worker, his tools and equipment was more than the 310-pound rating of the body harness.
- The safety sleeve was connected to the harness at the chest D-ring instead of to the navel D-ring as specified by the manufacturer of the ladder safety device.
- The body harness was not a component of the manufacturer's ladder safety device.