OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #221574031
IFS COATINGS INC.
GAINESVILLE, TX—
Event description
Employee is killed in fall from scissor lift after being sho
Investigation abstract
At 4:35 p.m. on June 16, 2023, an employee working as a maintenance technician was not detected within a time period. A coworker noticed the employee working in the dark and asked the employee if he needed a light. The employee responded yes so the coworker left the area to retrieve a flashlight. After he removed the fixture, the employee placed it across the guardrails of the scissor lift. The employee had partially installed the LED fixture, which was serviced by a metal-clad (MC) cable containing insulated ground, neutral, & hot conductors. The employee connected the neutral and ground leads from the LED lamp to the load side conductors. These circuits became deenergized after the service conductors were disconnected. The LED fixture was hanging from its leads unsupported. The service side neutral conductor was covered by electrical tape for a paint and coatings manufacturer was replacing a fluorescent light fixture while the hot conductor was not. No wire nuts or other splicing connecters were found in the area. While attempting to connect the LED light fixture to power, the employee contacted the energized conductor with his hands. After contact, the employee fell out of the scissor lift approximately 20 feet to the concrete floor below. The employee sustained electrical burns to his hands, and multiple blunt force trauma injuries including skeletal fractures, internal organ injuries, and a traumatic brain injury which killed him. with an LED fixture. The employee was working from a scissor lift. He had not placed the safety chain across the guardrail access on the lift. The 277-Volt circuit that serviced the fixtures had not been deenergized. The fixtures were controlled by a passive infrared motion detector switch integrated into the fixtures. The employee performed the work without adequate illumination since the only light source were two overhead light fixtures. The employee disconnected one fixture and the other turned off during the work since motion
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 34 M
- Event type
- 5
- Occupation code
- 519
- Fall distance
- 20
Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.