A 49-year-old worker fell and died last Wednesday while working on the U of I Boyd Law Building in Iowa City. I was lucky enough during my 3 years at Iowa to have met Willard Boyd, the President whose name graces the law school.  But what happened that allowed tom Fosdick, a 49-year-old man from Cedar Rapids to fall to his death. The general contractor (GC) on the job is noted to be Miron Construction of Neenah, Wisconsin. Fosdick was working Swanson Glass, a subcontractor on the exterior renovation project.

Today let's look at job site safety and fall protection for construction site and maintenance workers.

In a story by the Iowa Press-Citizen Miron’s director of risk management noted the company has completed 6,000 projects since September 1995. No one seems to be talking about the facts of how the man was killed. What was he doing? How high was he? Was he wearing a lanyard to protect him if he should fall? Was he more than 15 feet off the ground?

I’ve written extensively about fall protection for construction or building and ground maintenance workers. See Construction Site Accidents section on the Lombardi Law Firm website. At the LLF site if you do a search within the site for “fall protection” you’ll see there are over 1,900 results to choose from. On March 26, 2010 it’s noted the top ten fines from OSHA include fall protection sitting in the number 3 spot and probably rising. Let's Look At The Top Ten OSHA Fines. Here are the details after which a safety video is in order. If the GC isn’t going to enforce rules then construction workers need to protect themselves. It’s that simply. Going to a work on a construction site is one thing, but coming home is quite another. It reminds me of mountain climbing and what they say about the summit. Getting to the top means you’re only half-way home. 

Workers need to know their safety equipment and to push aside supervisors who ignore safety rules. Having the right safety equipment is and how to use it correctly could save your life. If you aren’t schooled in the how’s and why’s then visit the Miller Fall Protection on the Miller site and read or contact the sales rep and let him visit with you about the right fall protection equipment. The solutions can be uniquely tailored to your own situation. They have permanent and temporary solutions for roof top work. If the GC and your supervisor want to act like knuckleheads, it doesn’t mean you have to join them. You can also do a general search on Google for fall protection.

Accident details:

• Place of accident: University of Iowa Boyd Law School Building
• Time of Incident: 10:48 a.m., Monday
• Date: august 30, 2010
• Job Site: UI had awarded a $1.5 million contract to Miron for exterior repairs at the Boyd building
• Injured Worker: Tom Fosdick, 49-year-old man from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
• Investigating Body: Iowa OSHA, by Jens Nissen
• Employer: Swanson Glass, subcontractor
• GC: Miron Construction out of Neenah, Wisconsin
• Job duties at time of accident: an exterior window installation.

Interesting facts: Mr. Fosdick was an All-American diver at Cedar Rapids Kennedy, then joined the Hawkeye Swimming and Diving Team in 1979.

For additional reading,

• OSHA: Contractor had 19 violations, Press-Citizen
• Worker dies from incident at Iowa law building, Gazette Online
• Fall killed worker at University of Iowa project, Action 3 News, CBS
• Fall killed worker at University of Iowa project - KCAU, ContractorSafety.net includes reference to 24 news articles.

Fall Protection Training Video: