Dive Brief:
- Six workers were injured when seven stories of scaffolding collapsed at the construction site of a 397-unit residential building in Houston, the Houston Chronicle reported.
- More than 100 firefighters responded to the collapse across the street from the Houston Astros stadium in anticipation of more trapped workers or of a secondary collapse.
- The site will be shut down for several days while the investigation and clean up continue. OSHA inspectors visited the site, owned by developer The Finger Companies, in June of 2014 but found no violations, KHOU reported.
Dive Insight:
The Finger Companies, the Chronicle reported, is a well-known Houston developer, which issued a statement after the collapse.
"We are monitoring the situation very closely and working alongside authorities as we try to determine the cause of this accident. In the meantime, we are grateful to the first responders on the scene and praying that everyone is OK," said spokesperson Mark Sullivan.
According to OSHA, a Bureau of Labor and Statistics study found that 72% of workers injured in scaffold accidents attributed the accident either to the planking or support giving way or to slipping or being struck by a falling object, all of which can be controlled by compliance with OSHA scaffold standards. While the cause of the collapse is still not known, OSHA provides tools and materials on scaffold regulations and how to recognize improper scaffolding setup.
