This Safety Talk tells about Ken, a roofing foreman who injured his back while attempting to fix a leak on flat roof.
Ken’s employer is a fairly large regional roofing contractor. They have 73 employees and specialize in commercial and industrial flat roofs. Ken was hired 3 years ago, and had very little roofing experience when he was hired. But Ken did have quite a bit of supervisory experience, good business sense and he wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. In fact you would often see Ken jumping-in and helping wherever there was a need.
On the day on Ken’s injury, his crew was working on a job that involved repairing several leaks on the flat roof of a school. One of the leaks was located and was underneath a rubber mat that had been glued to the roof. To fix the leak the rubber mat had to be removed.
To help, Ken attempted to remove the rubber mat by bending over at the waist, grabbing one edge of the mat, and pulling upward. Although Ken was a fairly large man, the mat was glued down really well and he had a difficult time pulling it up. When he finally got the mat detached from the roof, he stood up and felt a burning pain in his back. The pain was pretty bad. So Ken took it easy for the rest of the day. But by the end of the day, the pain started to radiate down his left leg from his hip and Ken knew that he did some real damage to his back.
DISCUSSION NOTES:
This incident summary does not provide much detail about the mat that Ken was trying to remove. It also does not let us know if there was an alternative method for removing it. However it does paint a mental picture of Ken’s posture as he was pulling on the mat. It says that he was “bending over at the waist, grabbing one edge of the mat and pulling upward.” What’s wrong with that posture?
What do you think would have happened if the mat detached from the roof suddenly and unexpectedly?
- It’s scary to think what would have happened if there was an unprotected skylight or short parapet wall directly behind him.
With the limited information we have about this incident, what would made this task safer?
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Is there some type of tool that he might have used to pry up the mat?
- What if he had asked for help in pulling-up the mat?
Have any of you had similar situation that didn’t result in an injury?
A 34 year old male roofer died after falling approximately 30 feet from a flat roof to the concrete sidewalk.
On the day of the incident, the victim, his uncle, a cousin, and a fourth worker were replacing the asbestos shingles on a church roof. It was late into the third day of work when the victim suggested to his uncle that they stop and complete the job the following day. After telling his uncle that he would make sure that the cleanup work on the ground was completed, the victim descended one of the two 40-foot aluminum extension ladders that were used to access the roof of the church. The edge of the roof against which the ladders were placed was 27 feet above ground. Therefore, it is estimated that the ladder was extended to about 30 feet in length. A 7200-volt power line was 15 feet from the side of the church and 35 feet above ground level.









