Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1462739.015 - Fortmann Basin Ltd. Partnership, A California Limited Partnership

Inspection Information - Office: Oakland District Office

Investigation Summary

At 1:35 p.m. on February 5, 2020, an employee working for a marina was performing general maintenance and upkeep of the berths and surrounding property. His area of responsibility included, but was not limited to, the parking lot, fence, bathrooms, yacht club facility, and the harbor master office. The employer assigned the employee and a coworker to trim the overgrown berry bushes along the fence line of the parking lot just past the bathrooms at G & H docks. In order to access the top of the fence, the employee obtained a Werner Model NXT1A10 10-foot fiberglass A-frame stepladder. The employee positioned the ladder in the closed position and leaned it up against the chain link fence. He climbed the ladder and began to cut the overgrown bush with an Echo Model HC-150 Gas Powered Hedge Trimmer while the coworker picked up the hedge trimmings from the ground. When the employee began to climb down the ladder, the ladder slipped out from underneath him. The employee fell approximately 4 to 5 feet to the parking lot asphalt below. He caught his left leg between the 4th and 5th rung of the ladder and sheared the bones in his ankle. The employee was hospitalized to treat displaced and comminuted distal tibial and fibular fractures with tibiotalar dislocation and part of the fractured distal tibia was very close to the skin surface. This correlates with clinical evidence of an open fracture.

Keywords: Asphalt, Blunt force, Blunt force trauma, Broken Bone, Cutting, Descending, Descending Ladder, Fall, Fall From Elevation, Fence, Fracture, Ladder, Landscaping, Leg, Maintenance, Metal fence, Misjudgment, Misjudgment of Hazardous Situation, Open Fracture, Parking Lot, Stepladder, Training, Unstable Position