The accident investigation below was opened on Tuesday, August 8th 2017 by OSHA representitives in Kernville, CA which had occured previously at J.M.S., Inc.. A 22 year old man working as a Guide was injured on the job when the
Accident Date2017-07-21
Accident DegreeHospitalized injury
NarrativeAt 8:37 p.m. on July 21, 2017, Employee #1 was assigned to set up and take down the anchor pulley system used for belaying in an obstacle course element. The obstacle course element was called the Multi vine course. The anchor pulley was attached with a locking carabineer to a cable that ran horizontally about 45 feet high from the top of one solo pole to another pole at the rock climbing wall obstacle. The employee used a black diamond body belt type harness to climb the pole to attach the pulley and a nylon strap as a lanyard. The nylon strap was originally used as a flip line for rafts. Two locking carabineers were tied at either end by a figure eight knot. The length of the strap was approximately 3.5 feet with the carabineers. The middle of the strap was tied with a hitch knot onto the body belt at the employee's waist. Each of the carabineers was now about 20 inches from the hitch knot. Employee #1 climbed the pole attaching the carabineer to large staples that were nailed into the pole. The staples were about 4.5 inches long and about 0.25 inches thick. The staples protruded from the pole about 2 inches. The staples extended up the pole about 18 inches apart. At the end of the day, the customers had finished the obstacle course. Employee #1 climbed the pole to remove the anchor pulley. He reached the top staple near the top of the pole and attached one of his two carabineers to it. As he tried to attach his second carabineer to the cable that the anchor pulley was attached to, the staple with the first carabineer was pulled out of the pole and the employee fell approximately 35 feet. He sustained a fractured pelvis and was hospitalized.