Quality Window Cleaning: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Jul 20, 2000 (fatal): One employee killed, two injured in window washing accident

At approximately 10:07 p.m. on July 20, 2000, Employees #1 through #3, of Qualit y Window Cleaning, Inc., were cleaning windows on the west side of a building. E mployees #2 and #3 were working from a boatswain's chair suspended from the roof by two transportable roof rigs or roller, and descending the side of the buildi ng using descent control devices. Employee #1 was on the roof pushing the roller s back and forth to move his coworkers from window to window. Employee #1 was mo ving the roller on the south end of the building when one of its wheels slipped off the edge of the parapet wall. This caused the rollers, which were tied toget her, to fall between six and seven stories to the ground. Employees #2 and #3, w hose lifelines were only attached to the suspension point on the rollers, also f ell to the ground. Both sustained injuries; Employee #2 was listed in critical c ondition and Employee #3 was in serious condition following the accident. When t he south end roller went over the edge, Employee #1 was catapulted off the roof and fell approximately 84 ft 4 in. to the ground. He was killed. Neither of the rollers was anchored to the roof.

Incident on Mar 27, 1996 (fatal): Window washer killed in fall from three-story building

Employee #1, a window washer, was working alone near the top of a three-story br ick building when he fell approximately 35 ft. He sustained multiple fractures a nd a closed head injury, from which he died eight days later. There were no witn esses to the accident. Employee #1 had two years of experience, and he had been washing and caulking windows at the building for two-and-a-half weeks. He was ap parently wearing a rappelling harness and secondary safety belt; the harness was connected with a D-ring and a figure eight to a PMI climbing rope. The rope was not connected to an anchor point on the roof, and the safety belt was not conne cted to the rope.