Unprotected fall from roof

Summary: Oregon OSHA recently cited a roofing and construction company $48,897 for two violations of fall protection requirements. The citation resulted from an investigation of the death of a 46-year-old foreman and roofing service technician who fell from the roof of a single-family home on Aug.7, 2024.

How did the incident happen?

Two of the company’s 74 employees were assigned to clean a heavy build-up of moss from the home’s 7:12-pitch roof in Sherwood, Ore. They brought with them all tools and materials to do the work including employer-provided personal fall protection systems. They started at 10:30 a.m., using wire brushes to remove the moss from the roof’s asphalt shingles.

To protect himself from falling, the victim attached the snaphook on his rip-stitch shock-absorbing lanyard to the eye of one of the many eye lag screws in the roof that supported a ham radio antenna cable around the roof’s perimeter. (An eye lag screw has a threaded shaft and a closed eye at the top.)

The victim fell 13 feet, 10 inches, to an asphalt walkway when he apparently leaned back on his lanyard and tested the lag screw for stability. The homeowner’s 15-year-old son found the victim and called 911. Emergency responders called for life flight support, which flew the victim to a hospital in Portland where he died the next day.

Which Oregon OSHA rules applied?

Oregon OSHA determined its general industry, personal fall protection systems rules applied because the employees were doing maintenance work, removing the moss to restore the roof to its original condition, and because they were using employer-provided personal fall protection systems.

The compliance officer’s findings

The eyelet lag screws did not support at least 5,000 pounds.

• The eyelet lag screws that the employees used for anchorages were capable of holding about 1,300 pounds, depending on the quality of the screw and the wood that secured them. Oregon OSHA’s general industry rules for personal fall protection systems require that anchorages support at least 5,000 pounds – or are designed, installed and used under the supervision of a qualified person – and that maintain a safety factor of at least two.
• The victim’s coworker said he thought Oregon OSHA rules required that anchorages used for personal fall protection systems hold 200-400 pounds. He added that the company instructed employees to test an anchorage by pulling on it with their life line – and if it was loose to add an extra anchor.
• The victim’s coworker said the company allowed each employee to determine if an anchorage was capable of preventing a fall.
• The company’s project manager did not know who the company’s qualified person was. A qualified person is someone who is responsible for determining if the anchors are installed correctly and can maintain a safety factor of at least two.

The victim’s personal fall protection systems was improperly rigged.

• The victim did not rig his personal fall protection system so that it would prevent him from free-falling more than 6 feet or from contacting a lower level.
• The victim’s rope grab was attached to the end of his vertical lifeline; there was so much slack in the vertical lifeline that it would not have arrested his fall, even if the anchorage was capable of supporting an impact force of 5,000 pounds.
• The victim’s coworker did not know that the maximum free fall distance an employee is allowed to free fall when using a personal fall protection system is 6 feet.

The company’s disciplinary policy was ineffective.

• Some employees had violated the company’s fall protection policy six times over the past three years and had not been disciplined.
• The victim’s coworker said he thought there was a company disciplinary policy, but because he is unable to read or write, he did not know what the policy said.