In a February 5 decision, an administrative law judge (ALJ) with the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission vacated an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) citation of a fall protection violation.

Review Commission Judge Carol A. Baumerich concluded that the agency’s evidence failed to establish the cited employer’s noncompliance with OSHA’s construction industry fall protection standard (29 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) §1926.501).

On October 4, 2022, an employee of Trinity Solar fell during solar panel installation work at a residence in South Orange, New Jersey. The worker died because of the fall.

No one saw where the worker was or what he was doing immediately before the fall.

The worker was wearing a fall protection harness, and the employer had installed anchorage points and rope lines on portions of the residence’s roof where solar panels were being installed.

A compliance safety and health officer (CSHO) from OSHA’s Parsippany, New Jersey, area office arrived approximately 40 minutes after the fall to inspect the site. On April 3, 2023, OSHA cited Trinity Solar with a repeat, serious violation of the fall protection standard.

Two teams worked installing solar panels at the South Orange residence—one crew on the upper roof 22 feet (ft) off the ground and another on a lower roof 12 ft off the ground. The worker who fell was assigned to work on the upper roof.

During the worksite inspection, the CSHO took photographs of the roof from the ground 22 ft below. The CSHO took no measurements, and witnesses testified that the pictures taken by the CSHO didn’t provide an accurate view of the worksite during the installation work.

OSHA contended it was “more likely than not” that the worker fell from the roof rather than the ladder despite the lack of eyewitnesses to the incident. The agency argued that the injured worker “must have been” climbing onto the roof without fall protection when he fell.

Trinity’s installers and crew leads (foremen) testified that rope line clips were reachable from the ladders used on the upper and lower roofs.

The ALJ’s decision hinged on where the worker was at the time of the fall. The fall protection standard doesn’t apply when workers are ascending a ladder. Baumerich concluded that OSHA failed to provide evidence establishing that the injured worker was on the roof and not the ladder at the time of the fall.

Trinity Solar is a residential solar and roofing contractor that installs solar panels on homes in Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Trinity grew over 30 years from a five-employee heating and air conditioning company serving commercial and residential customers to a residential-only solar panel installation company employing 3,236 workers.

The construction industry fall protection—general requirements standard has been OSHA’s most frequently cited standard for 14 straight years. Last fall, the agency announced at the National Safety Council’s (NSC) Safety Congress & Expo that it cited 6,307 violations of §1926.501 in fiscal year (FY) 2024.