A worker painting an electric maintenance tower comes in contact with an energized power line and falls 70 feet – striking a second employee working on a lower level and causing him to fall as well. The first man dies. The second survives, but suffers serious injuries. Neither was provided with functional fall equipment by his employer.
This incident is just one of many in OSHA’s case files that illustrate why the agency takes its fall protections standards so seriously – and why they were the most-cited in 2015. Falls are common and, too often, fatal. They are the top cause of work-related deaths in the construction industry, and occur frequently in other industries as well.