Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Report: Sixteen-Year-Old Hispanic Youth Dies after Falling from a Job-Made Elevated Work Platform During Construction in South Carolina

摘要

On March 9, 2004, a 16-year-old Hispanic construction laborer on a framing crew (the victim) was injured when he fell from a job-made elevated work platform (scaffold) and struck his head on a concrete slab 10 feet 3-inches below at approximately 3:00pm. The victim complained of a severe headache to his crew leader and to his father and uncles, who also worked on the framing crew. The construction project coordinator employed by the general contractor reportedly told the crew leader to take the youth to the hospital emergency room, less than a mile from the site. According to the victim's father, the framing subcontractor's crew leader drove him and his son to a drugstore where they purchased aspirin and, after giving aspirin to the victim, the crew leader drove them home. The crew leader returned to work and the victim's father remained at home with the victim. When the victim's uncles returned home from work at approximately 7:30 p.m., the victim was vomiting and unable to walk. The victim's father and uncles drove the victim to the crew leader's home shortly after 7:30 p.m. The crew leader drove the victim and family members to a hospital, stopping along the way at a medical clinic to seek care, but the clinic had already closed. The victim arrived at a hospital emergency room at approximately 8:30 p.m. and was pronounced dead at 9:28 p.m. by an emergency room physician. NIOSH investigators gave recommendations to help prevent similar occurrences.