OSHA Accident Reports

Plasteco, Inc. FallGuard® Skylight Screens provide a moratorium against falls through acrylic and corrugated fiberglass skylights.
Listed below, are some of the accidents which have occurred and were compiled by OSHA Management Data Systems. The accidents in themselves are doubly tragic because they could have all been prevented with FallGuard® Skylight Screens.

Acrylic Dome

Accident 201260262 - Fall Through Skylight - Fatality
Inspection: 302055207 Open: 07/01/1998 SIC: 7623
An electronics corporation hired employee #1 in April 1998 to service air conditioners that were located on rooftop of the twenty-foot tall facility. On the roof, there were skylights that were equipped with Plexiglas covers over them to protect them from the elements. They were cracked however from many years of UV light and outside exposure to the elements. They would not hold the weight of a normal size person, even if the skylights were new. The particular AC unit that employee #1 was apparently working on was located 10 inches away from the 52-inch by 52-inch skylight box frame. There were no guardrails or bars protecting the skylight or any of the roof top skylights from fall hazards. Employee #1 came in contact with the unprotected skylight cover, either by attempting to sit on or possibly he may have tripped and fell onto the plastic cover. This caused him to break through and fall to his death, twenty feet to the ground floor. The building owner and the lessee were advised to secure the skylights with protective bars or guardrails.

Accident 201280336 - Fell Through Skylight 20 Feet to His Death - Fatality
Inspection: 300975869 Open: 06/23/1998 SCI: 3564
On June 22, 1998 at approximately 09:30A.M. Employee #1 was walking backward on the plant’s roof carrying a sheet of plywood when he fell through a roof skylight cover. The employee had just received the sheet of plywood through another damaged skylight cover that he was going to cover with the sheet of plywood until a new cover was received for installation. The employee fell approximately 20 feet to the plant’s floor below. The employee died from the injuries obtained in the fall.

Accident 201401676 - Fall - Hospitalized Contusions/ Abrasions
Inspection: 127103018 Open: 04/01/1998 SIC 1761
While installing roofing material worker was chasing a piece of wind blown insulation and stepped into an unguarded skylight opening. He fell 20 feet to floor below.

Accident 201500444 - Fell Through Skylight - Hospitalized Fracture
Inspection: 119669943 Open: 03/09/1998 SIC 1731
The accident took place on January 8, 1998, at about 10:00 am. As reported, the injured employee fell 18 feet through a skylight onto the concrete floor. On the day of the accident, the injured employee was assigned to help the lead person in locating and finding the shutdown power control for each air-handling unit (AHU) of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. At the time of the accident, the injured employee was working up on the roof of a building and he tripped over a skylight curb and fell onto the skylight dome which broke under the impact and he fell 18 feet through the skylight on to the concrete floor.

Accident 201520319 - Fall Through a Skylight Opening - Fatality
Inspection: 123284234 Open 02/06/1998 SIC 1521
On Monday, February 2, 1998 at approximately 1009 hrs, employee #1 was moving 2" by 4" by 18" roof rafters on the 3rd floor deck when he fell through the skylight openings on the 3rd floor deck, the second floor deck, and landed on the 1st floor deck. The skylight openings were not covered and there was no guardrail system in place. Employee #1 received serious head injuries and died from these injuries on Tuesday, February 3rd, 1998 at approximately 1840 hrs

.Accident 201491569 - Fall through Skylight - Fatality
Inspection: 127218956 Open: 01/28/1998 SIC 1761
Employee was moving insulation on opposite sides of a skylight. As he was walking backwards he placed his foot in the opening, fell through skylight approximately 32 feet.

Corrugated Fiberglass

Accident 126010354 - Fall From Roof Through Skylight - Hospitalized
Inspection: 126010354 Open: 08/05/1998 SIC: 0191
Employee #1, a handyman/electrical was working on an electrical circuit of water evaporating cooling unit, on the roof of a building, as he was walking on the metal roof he stepped or fell through an unguarded plastic skylight panel. Employee was approximately 20 feet high and fell through the roof to the concrete floor below. Employee #1 injuries were a fractured pelvis and tailbone. The cause factors seem to be allowing employee to work on the roof area within 6 feel of unguarded or otherwise protected plastic skylights. Employer is a custom framing operations. Employee #1 had just been hired that day to perform this type of function.

Accident 201921087 - Fall Through Skylight - Fatality
Inspection: 123618720 Open: 06/01/1998 SIC: 5031
On May 30, 1998 at approximately 3:30pm, employee #1 was working as a roof safety monitor. His job duties included warning employees working too close to the roof edge and warning them when working close to the corrugated fiberglass skylight panels. He also had the responsibility of pouring the aluminum roof coating onto the roof so that the other employees could spread the material. Employee #1 warned the roof coating spreaders of an up coming skylight panel then employee #1 walked onto the skylight panel and fell through approximately 20 feet to the concrete slab below. He suffered head injuries and died the following day in the hospital at 10:30 am on May 31, 1998. The event casual factors are directed toward the lack of skylight covers to prevent employees from stepping through the skylights and the fact that the safety monitor had other duties, which took his attention away from his monitoring function.

Accident 200780377 - Fall Through Roof Skylight - Fatality
Inspection: 103628657 Open: 04/21/1998 SIC: 4213
Two employees were assigned to replace burned out flood light bulbs for fixtures that were mounted on the leading edge of the metal roof. As the employees had finished their work on the west side of the building they proceeded over the roof to the east side to continue work. In the process of doing so, one employee fell through an unguarded skylight approximately 14 feet to the concrete floor of the dock. The employee died the next day as a result of craniocerebral trauma.

Accident 000908418-05 - Fall through Skylight - Fatality
Inspection: 301766192 Open: 04/07/1998 SIC 1761
Employees were on an arch type roof pressure washing the roof prior to painting it. One employee was using the pressure washer and another on a lower roof assisting with the pressure and hoses. The EMPLOYEE on the lower roof went up on the arched higher roof with no face protection and fell through a skylight.

Accident 201560158 - Fall From Elevation - Fatality
Inspection: 126784420 Open: 03/03/1998 SIC 1791
An employee was fatally injured after stepping onto, then through a section of corrugated metal sheeting that had been partially cut through on three sides as part of a skylight installation, falling 33” onto a cement floor below.

Accident 201091253 - Fall From Roof Fracture Wrists Leg
Inspection: 126215821 Open: 02/09/1998 SIC 1522
On 2-4-98 at approximately 11:00 a.m. an employee fell through a skylight on a roof of an old barn. The skylight was made of fiberglass rib sheet and 2 feet by 7 feet. The skylight had just been installed and was 22 feet high over a concrete floor. A citation was issued for failing to cover or guard the skylight.