This is a truly horrifying accident on an unusual worksite with tragic results.
A worker named Jose Tilo Hernandez Garcia was painting the underside of a bridge over the Ogeechee River in Savannah, Georgia, when he fell last month.
The river is a free-flowing blackwater river, which means it doesn’t have any human-built dams to stem its natural flow. Jose’s body was swallowed up and lost.
Sadly, it appears that Jose didn’t survive the ordeal.
After a 16 day search, a body was found April 24 that the sheriff’s office says matches the description of Garcia. The office was awaiting DNA tests to confirm.
An investigation into the incident began April 8 but has not yet been listed in the OSHA database.
The company that employed Garcia as a subcontractor for the job had previously been cited in October 2020 for failing to ensure employees had fall protection while scaffolding at a height greater than six feet and failing to report the hospitalization of one or more employees.
The company paid over $100,000 in fines for the offenses.
It is yet another reminder that working at height needs to be taken seriously.
We have seen one example after another of injuries from insufficient fall protection, including a whole slew at water towers.
You may not think that you need to use fall protection, but fatal accidents can happen from as low as six feet. A fall from 12-20 feet – less than most roofs – carries a significant risk of severe injury.
So make sure you are using proper fall protection. As the saying goes, it’s not the fall that gets you, it’s the sudden stop.
