Apprentice falls 4.7 m when makeshift scaffold access fails

Background

WorkSafe is investigating an incident on a residential construction site in Camberwell. An apprentice fell 4.7 m when a nailed timber guardrail partially detached from a window opening on the second storey. The apprentice stood on the timber guardrail because there was no safe access point to the hanging bracket scaffold.

Safety issues

Hanging bracket scaffolds are:

• usually set up between heights of 2.7 and 5.2 m
• installed around the outside of a house
• typically accessed from inside the house.

It is important to have an appropriate access point so people can get on and off the scaffold safely.

Unsafe or makeshift access to hanging bracket scaffolds can increase the risk of people falling. Falls are a leading cause of fatalities and serious injuries on Victorian construction sites.

Recommended ways to control the risk

Scaffolders should not commission a hanging bracket scaffold without safe access. Employers (for example, the builder) should not accept or allow people to use a hanging bracket scaffold that has been erected without safe access.

To reduce the risk of a person falling more than 2 m when getting on or off hanging bracket scaffolds, use an intermediate set of steps that will adequately support access. Steps are usually placed in an opening of the supporting structure, such as a window. If this is not reasonably practicable, provide access by a:

• tower access scaffold
• secured ladder that extends 900 mm past the landing or departure point.

Ladders such as A-frame or platform ladders are not designed to access a hanging bracket scaffold. Using them for this purpose could also increase the risk of someone falling.

Legal duties

As an employer, you have duties under the following health and safety laws:

• Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004
• Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017 (OHS Regulations).

In line with these duties, you must do the following:

• Provide or maintain plant or systems of work that are safe and without risks to health, so far as is reasonably practicable.
• Ensure the scaffold, or the relevant part of the scaffold, is erected and complete before any work other than erecting or dismantling takes place.
• Inspect plant to the extent necessary to ensure that any risk associated with its use is monitored.

Where there is a risk of a person falling from a height of more than 2 m, employers have specific duties under the OHS Regulations:

• Part 3.3 (Prevention of falls)
• Part 5.1 (Construction).

People who install, erect or commission plant to be used at a workplace also have duties under health and safety laws.

In line with these duties, they must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that nothing about the way in which the plant is installed, erected or commissioned makes its use unsafe or a risk to health. This includes its access points.