The US Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued fines after a worker fell about 65 ft. (19.8 m) from an improperly elevated scaffold, suffering serious injuries.

OSHA investigators determined that the employees of Native Sun Materials Inc. of Colorado Springs were constructing a concrete elevator and stairway core for a 44-unit residential building in 2021 at the time of the incident. They also learned that the project's general contractor, R.G. Brinkmann Co. of Aurora, permitted workers to access and ride a climbing scaffold as the crane hoisted the scaffold system upwards. During the lifting process, the scaffold system shifted and inverted, causing one worker to fall and suffer severe leg, back and head injuries. A co-worker, whose fall arrest gear left him dangling from the scaffold, was rescued and suffered minor injuries.

OSHA found the three contractors – Native Sun Materials Inc., R.G. Brinkmann Co. and the crane operator, B&C Steel Inc. of Denver ­– each contributed to the conditions that exposed the workers to fall and struck-by hazards. OSHA also learned the climbing scaffold manufacturer's guidelines recommended not using the system with a lift.

"To use equipment to hoist workers to elevations, an employer must demonstrate that conventional means of reaching the work area are impossible or more hazardous," says OSHA area director Amanda Kupper in Denver. "This employer's failure to follow that requirement caused a worker to suffer life-changing injuries and another to be forever reminded of this tragedy."

The three companies have 15 business days from receipt of citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA's area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.