PRP Painting: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Oct 18, 2000: Employee injured in fall from scissor lift platform

At approximately 7:58 a.m. on October 18, 2000, Employee #1, a painter hired the night before by a small painting contractor to help on a specific project, had been working for about an hour. He was using a scissor lift to clean a ceiling i n preparation for painting. When he began working, he secured the chain on the s cissor lift, raised the lift, and then immediately descended to retrieve some to ols on the ground. Employee #1 ascended a second time and was working on the cei ling when he fell, head first, 12.5 ft off the lift platform. He landed on the c ement floor and suffered a skull laceration, for which he was hospitalized. The employer had med with him earlier that morning but was no longer at the site whe n the accident occurred, nor were there any direct witnesses to the accident or to the events leading up to it. Employee #1 had apparently forgotten to secure t he chain on the platform the second time he ascended. Subsequent investigation c oncluded that the fall resulted from there being no fall protction or guardrails /chain rails on the scissor lift. The employer was cited for a serious accident- related violation of T8CCR 1670(a), for no fall protection. It was also cited fo r several general violations, including lack of operator training on the equipme nt.