Rock Solid Home Builders: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Aug 18, 2019: Employee setting trusses falls and suffers fractures

At 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 18, 2019, an employee was working for a framing contractor. He and some coworkers were at a residential construction site. The crew's supervisor was operating a telehandler to lift trusses to the employee and a coworker working on the top plates of a residential garage under construction. The two workers were setting trusses. The trusses were 45 feet (13.7 meters) long and 94 in. (2.38 meters) high, with a 2 by 8 (38 mm by 184 mm) top plate. The crew used a truss lock system when setting trusses. Truss lock devices were placed on the top chord of the truss and flown into place by a forklift. The truss lock would automatically lock into place on the adjacent truss. One of the truss locks did not lock into place. The employee, who was working on the west top plate, was accessing the unstable truss to lock the truss lock into place. He did not attempt to secure the tail of the truss to the top plate prior to accessing the truss. The truss became unstable, and the employee and two other trusses fell. The employee fell from the truss he was on as it fell. The employee fell approximately 16 feet (4.9 meters) to the concrete floor below. The employee's head hit a sawhorse below. The employee lost several teeth and suffered a broken leg, as well as other fractures throughout his body. He was hospitalized for two or more days. The crew leader admitted that the two were workers on the east and west top plate were working without a fall protection system at the time of the incident.