An electrician's assistant received fatal head and chest injuries when he fell 10 feet from an unguarded mezzanine onto the main floor of a residential construction site.

The worker was about to string electrical cable in direct proximity to 16 sheets of gypsum board drywall (weighing approximately 1500 lbs.). The drywall was stacked in an upright and leaning position against a stud wall 4 feet from the unguarded edge. The drywall was not secured. The drywall tipped away from the wall, hitting the worker and pushing him over the edge.

The accident investigation concluded the cause of the accident was the unsafe condition created by storing the drywall at a steep angle and not securing it. This was particularly hazardous in this case since the drywall had been stored near an edge where it could knock a person over the edge. If a standard guardrail had been in place, the falling material would still have been hazardous as it would have pushed the worker into the guardrail, causing serious injury and damaging or breaking the guardrail.

Safe work practices:

• Stack and store all building materials in a safe location.
• Secure building materials against inadvertent movement.
• Provide and maintain guardrails along any open sides of a raised floor area.