10/17/2016

Ethyl and Skyler walked out of their meeting with the Site Supervisor, Walt. Walt was discussing an injury sustained by one of their site workers, Jesse.  As it happened, Jesse, quite innocently, tweaked his back while walking down some steps from the break trailer. Ethyl, the Site Safety and Health Officer (SSHO) and Skyler, the project’s union representative, were both quite concerned. Walt expressed his thoughts with an intense trepidation, as, according to the projects’ occupational medical specialist, had prescribed Jesse some fairly potent pain medication. This categorized the injury as an OSHA recordable incident. In addition, Occ Med also counselled Jesse to take a few days off to rest in bed and to “take it easy.” This was because Jesse described his pain as being so severe that he was having difficulty walking. No one was sure how long Jesse would need to be out; and, when he did return to work, it looked like he would need to be assigned lite duty. So not only did Jesse have an OSHA recordable injury, but his days away and his eminent restricted duty would be entered into the OSHA logs as a DART case; the OSHA acronym for “Days Away, Restrictions and Transfers.”  Depending on how many days he would be out and how long he needed to be on restricted work detail, would be important factors to determine the severity of the incident which, subsequently, would need to be documented in the OSHA logs. Jesse’s incident would definitely affect the project’s incident rate and their worker’s compensation experience modification rate (EMR) – All from walking down a short group of 5 steps? How could this be?

Sky started the conversation.

“Talk about a freak accident!”

Before Ethyl could sit in her chair, she stopped in mid-motion, turned around and looked at her union counterpart.

“Well actually, Sky, when I first heard of Jesse’s mishap, I took a look at those steps and I can say without a doubt, this incident was not a freak accident.”

Sky’s eye’s widened. “Really, you don’t think so?”

“Yep.” Ethyl nodded with her lips tightly pursed. “I believe that this incident was completely preventable and Jesse’s tweaked back was the result of an actual unsafe condition due to poorly constructed steps.” 

Before Skyler could even think about a retort, Ethyl continued.

“It is obvious those steps were gerry-rigged. You see, during the project’s mobilization, it was realized that steps were needed for accessing the break trailer. I mean, there was a four foot drop to the ground from the door. So Walt asked the carpenters to construct some steps. However, I never knew about this until I arrived here yesterday. So Walt just said, ‘we need some steps for the break trailer.’ Without any additional information, Gus, the carpenter assigned to this job, just made some wooden steps without getting the necessary specs.”

Quickly, Sky jumped in. “Specs? Don’t tell me there are actual OSHA specifications for constructing stairs? Something as mundane and trivial as a few wooden steps?!”

Ethyl gave a smirk and nodded.  She knew the OSHA regs backwards and forwards.

“The specifics are spelled out in both the general industry and construction standard. 29 CFR 1910.24 and 29 CFR 1926.1052.” Ethyl continued. “The first regulation is kind of general, called ‘Fixed Industrial Stairs,” while the second one, ‘Stairways,’ really focuses on our concern.”

Skylar interjected. “So what does the regulations say?”

“Well, first of all, the stairs that Gus constructed did not have a landing. And the OSHA regulation does state that a stairway that is not part of a permanent structure does require a landing.”

Before Sky could jump in and defend Gus, Ethyl raised her hands, palms facing Skylar as if to say, “Please let me finish.”

“I understand that Gus is not to blame. He was just doing what he was told.”

Sky immediately made a gesture that showed her agreement while nodding for Ethyl to continue.

“OSHA further states that the rise and tread on each step shall be uniform. We saw that the stairs were far from having that type of consistency. AND when there are 4 or more steps or having a stairway that is greater than 30 inches, that stairway does requires a handrail – also missing.”

Skylar quickly didn’t want Ethyl to continue without making sure that Gus was not going to be the scapegoat. “Are you suggesting that Gus is responsible for constructing non-compliant stairs?!”

“Whoa, hold on. If Gus was never told what the stairs was for, he can only be accused, at least at this time, for making a less-than-perfect quality product. Let’s not make this into too big an issue.”

Ethyl was obviously using careful language.

“The point is this. If Gus was given the right information, he could have produced, I am quite confident to say, an excellent product. However, what happened was that he did exactly what he was told. And because of that, the risk of someone – not just Jesse – but anyone, taking an awkward action due to the inconsistent height between each step, was more than apparent. In addition, because there was no handrail, once a person lost their balance, there would be an immediate attempt to grab on to anything; Such as, which was the case with Jesse, grabbing onto anything as he lost his balance. In his case it was the trailer’s window frame. This caused poor positioning while having a sudden force exerted upon a body in a disproportionate manner. This could quite conceivably cause a strain. In Jesse’s case, his lower lumber was the target.”

Ethyl had to let this information sink in. It was evident that a proper set of stairs could have prevented Jesse from losing his balance, which resulted in a back strain. Through better communication, a hazard assessment and an understanding of S&H regulations, it was be easy to see that this injury was 100% preventable.    

Only the guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat

Jean-Paul Sartre