BSEE Alert – 399 Grating failures cause a fatality and a serious near miss

During a planned maintenance and construction outage on a production platform on May 16, 2020, a contractor working on the casing deck inside of a hard-barricaded area (Figure 1) fell 30-40 feet to the deck below (Figure 2), resulting in death.

On May 4, 2020, in a separate incident on another facility, an electrician fell through the grating area where repair work was being conducted. The electrician was surveying lighting repairs when he stepped on a section of grating that gave way beneath him (Figure 3). He was able to catch himself using his arms to prevent falling through to the plus-10 decking 40 feet below (Figure 4). Other employees in the area were able to assist him to safety

To view the original safety alert from BSEE in full, including recommendations, click on ‘Download Alert’ above.