Pacific Structures, Inc.: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Jun 10, 2013: Employee fractures leg when drywall falls

On June 10, 2013, Employee #1, with Pacific Structures, Inc., was showing a cowo rker the areas that needed additional work, such as grinding/patching or removin g nails at the South East wing corner unit. The available area was approximately nine ft four ins. by 10 ft six ins., with two exposed sides guarded by a perime ter cable system. Eight sheets of drywall (either four ft by eight ft or four ft by nine ft) had been stacked on their edges, and these stacks leaned against th e perimeter cable. This left less than one ft on each side for Employee #1 and t he coworker to get to the perimeter cable to see the nails sticking out of the d eck edge of that floor and that of the floor above. It appeared that as they let go of the cable, the stack of sheetrock tipped over and fell on Employee #1's r ight lower leg, fracturing his tibia and fibula bones. Employee #1 was hospitali zed. The cause of the accident was improper stacking and placing of sheetrock. T 8 CCR 1549 (d) prohibited stacking sheetrock on its edge unless positively secur ed against tipping or falling. Moreover, T8 CCR 1549 (e) prohibited placing mate rial inside buildings under construction within 10 ft of an exterior wall, which does not extend above the top of the material unless the material is positively secured to prevent it from falling. No serious accident-related citation was is sued because none of the contractors admitted that they had placed the sheetrock in that position. However, the Employer, as well as the Sheetrock subcontractor and the General Contractor, were cited with General Citations under the Multi-E mployer worksite Standard (T8 CCR 336.10) as the Exposing, Creating/Correcting, and Controlling Employers, respectively.