This document discusses caught-in and between hazards, which are the fourth leading cause of construction worker deaths. It defines caught-in/between hazards as injuries caused by being crushed by or caught between objects, machinery, or equipment. The document then provides examples of common caught-in/between hazards like unguarded machinery, trench collapses, and getting pinned between equipment and structures. It also outlines steps workers and employers can take to protect against these hazards, such as using proper machine guarding, fall protection, and trench shoring.

1. Caught-In and Between Hazards

2. • Caught-in or -between
injuries occur as a result of
being crushed by or caught
between objects, machinery,
or other equipment.
• If an injury is caused by
impact alone, it is classified
as struck-by.
Definition

3. • Caught-in/Between Hazards come in
fourth in Construction’s “Fatal Four”
leading causes of worker deaths, as
documented by OSHA:
• Falls - accounted for 381 out of 971
total deaths in construction in CY
2017 (39.2%)
• Struck-by Object - 80 (8.2%)
• Electrocutions - 71 (7.3%)
• Caught-in/between - 50 (5.1%)
• Eliminating the Fatal Four would save
582 workers' lives in America every
year.
Statistics

4. Common types of Caught-In/Between Hazards
include:
• Machinery with unguarded moving parts.
• Buried in or by.
• Pinned between.
Examples:
• Worker pulled into running machinery
after hair, clothing, or jewelry gets
caught.
• Trench collapse.
• Worker crushed between a truck trailer
and dock wall.
Categories and Examples

5. Data
• Injured by slipping or swinging objects -
530
• Drill
• An employee was using a portable
cordless drill to prepare tubing for
welding when the drill started to slip.
• When he attempted to catch the drill, the
attachment amputated his left index
fingertip.
• Constant pressure switches shut off when
pressure is released.

6. Data
• Compressed by shifting objects – 420
• Handling loads
• Employee was setting a column form
with an overhead hoist, when his finger
became caught between a metal bracket
and a two by four.
• The bracket lacerated the tip of the
employee's finger and shaved a small
portion of the bone.

7. Data
• Compressed by shifting objects – 420
• Forklifts
• At the time of the incident, workers were using
a forklift truck to lift a job box (metal box) onto
the upper level.
• While taking the job box off of the forklift
truck, the worker's hand was pinched between
the forklift truck and the job box.
• He sustained a bone fracture and partial
amputation of his right fourth finger, distal
phalanx, distal tuft, with a loss of overlaying
soft tissue.

8. Data
• Compressed by shifting objects – 420
• Unexpected movement
• An employee was disconnecting a trailer
and a jack when the trailer moved, pinching
and amputating his left-hand index and
middle fingers between the trailer and jack.

9. Data
• Compressed by shifting objects
– 420
• Closing pinchpoint
• An employee was pulling a
gang box when the lid of the
box closed on the employee's
right hand, amputating a
fingertip.

10. Statistics

11. Machinery With Unguarded Moving Parts
• If machinery is not properly guarded or de-
energized during operation, maintenance, or
repair, injuries from caught-in/between hazards
may result, ranging from amputations and
fractures to death.
• Workers can get clothing or parts of their body
caught in machines that are not properly
guarded.
• If machines are not de-energized (locked-out)
when they are being repaired, they may cycle or
otherwise start up and catch a worker’s body
part or clothing, causing injury or death.

12. • Cave-ins of unprotected trenches and
excavations can crush or suffocate
workers.
• Workers can drown in water, sewage, or
chemicals in trenches.
• If working near underground utilities,
workers may also face burns, electrocution
or explosions from steam, hot water, gas,
or electricity.
• Workers may be buried and crushed by
collapsing scaffolds, or walls that collapse
during demolition.
Buried In or By

13. • Workers can be pinned between:
• Equipment and a solid object, such
as a wall or another piece of
equipment;
• Materials being stacked or stored
and a solid object, such as a wall
or another piece of equipment;
• Or between shoring and
construction materials in a trench.
• Avoid working under loads. Support a
raised load.
Pinned Between

14. Protecting Yourself
Use machinery that is properly guarded:
• All hazardous moving parts of power
tools and equipment need to be
safeguarded.
• Never remove a safety guard when a
tool is being used.
• Be sure to avoid wearing loose
clothing or dangling jewelry that can
easily get caught in moving parts;
keep hair short or tied back.

15. Protecting Yourself
Use other methods to ensure that machinery is
sufficiently supported, secured or otherwise made safe:
• Be sure that equipment is de-energized and cannot
be started accidentally:
• Disconnect power tools when not in use, before
servicing, and when changing accessories such
as blades, bits, and cutters.
• Turn off vehicles before you do maintenance or
repair work.
• Lower or block the blades of bulldozers and
similar equipment before you make repairs or
when the equipment is not in use.
• If possible, lock out the power source to any
equipment that is not in use or being repaired.

16. Protecting Yourself
Protect yourself from being pinned between
equipment, materials, or other objects:
• Be aware at all times of the equipment
around you and stay a safe distance from
it.
• Never place yourself between moving
materials and an immovable structure,
vehicle, or stacked materials.
• Turn off the vehicle and set the parking
brake.
• Stay out of the swing radius or cranes and
other equipment.
• Wear a seatbelt.

17. Protecting Yourself
Protect yourself on excavation sites:
• Do not work in an unprotected trench
that is 5 feet deep or more.
• The type of protection may be sloping
or trenching; trench box or shield; or
shoring.
• Enter or exit a trench or excavation only
by using a ladder, stairway or properly
designed ramp that is placed within the
protected area of the trench.
• Do not work outside of the confines of
the protection system!

18. Protecting Yourself
Protect yourself in boring pits:
• Do not work in an unprotected pit that
is 5 feet deep or more.
• Boring introduces a rotating part hazard.
• Determine if the exhaust will need to be
vented away
• Have plan if the auger gets stuck.

19. Oct 2018

20. The Theory of Shoring
• Shoring prevents cave-ins
• Shoring, if designed and
installed correctly, prevents
movement of the excavated
wall.

21. The Theory of Shielding
• Trench shields and boxes, if
installed correctly, are
designed to protect workers
from the forces of a cave-in
• In order for the shield to do
its job, you must stay within
the protection of the shield
even when entering and
exiting

22. Underground Utilities
Source of photo: OSHA
As required, this worker’s employer used their
state’s one call system to locate under ground
utilities before breaking ground. Now he is hand
digging to find the exact location.

23. Spoil Pile
Source of photo: OSHA
Minimum

24. Ladders

25. Swing Radius
• Violation: Excavator
extends 42 inches
beyond track. It is able
to strike anyone walking
by on this site.
• This is incompliance.
Cones are used to warn
people.

26. Protecting Yourself
Training:
• Make sure you have the proper training on the equipment
and hazards of your job so that you can do your work safely.

27. Employer Requirements
Provide guards on power tools and other equipment with
moving parts:
Employers are required to ensure that…
• Hand-held power tools are fitted with the appropriate
guards and safety switches, as determined by their type
of power source.
• ALL exposed moving parts of power tools - such as
belts, gears, shafts, pulleys, etc - are properly guarded.
• Points-of-operation – where the work is actually
performed on the equipment – are properly guarded.
• In-running nip points, such as where the sanding belt
runs onto a pulley in a belt sanding machine, are
properly guarded.

28. Employer Requirements
Support, secure or otherwise make safe
equipment having parts that workers could
be caught between:
Employers are required to…
• Provide a lock-out/tag-out program or
equivalent system to ensure that
equipment is not accidentally energized
during maintenance or repair.
• Make sure bulldozer and scraper blades,
end-loader buckets, dump bodies, and
similar equipment are ALWAYS blocked
or fully lowered when being repaired or
not in use.

29. Employer Requirements
Take measures to prevent workers being
crushed by heavy equipment that tips over:
Employers are required to…
• Designate a competent person to inspect
equipment and operations to identify
working conditions that are hazardous to
workers, including ensuring that the support
surface is firm and able to support the load.
• Make sure that vehicles are equipped with
rollover protective structures.
• Make sure vehicles are equipped with
seatbelts, and that workers wear them at all
times during operation.

30. Employer Requirements
Take measures to prevent workers from being
pinned between equipment and a solid object:
Employers are required to ensure that…
• Only the personnel absolutely necessary to
the work are allowed in the work area.
• Proper bracing is used between heavy plates
used as shoring in a trench.
• The path of travel for workers when
loading/unloading, stacking, and storing
materials is arranged so that no workers will
be caught between materials and moving
equipment or between materials and a wall.

31. Employer Requirements
Provide protection for workers during
trenching and excavation work:
Employers are required to…
• Designate a competent person trained in
excavation safety to inspect the trenching
operations, identify and eliminate any
potential hazards before work begins.
• Make sure all excavations and trenches are
protected from cave-ins as specified in OSHA
standards.
• Take precautions when equipment is
operating over or near an excavation to
ensure workers are never put in harm’s way.

32. Employer Requirements
Provide means to avoid the collapse of
structures scaffolds:
Employers are required to ensure that…
• Scaffolds are only to be erected, moved,
dismantled or altered under the supervision
of a competent person.
• Scaffolds are not assembled with inadequate
support, improper construction, or the
possibility of a shift in the components or
base, which could result in collapse.
• Cinder blocks or similar materials that could
be crushed are not used to support a scaffold.

33. General requirements
Design load
• The design load of all scaffolds
shall be
• calculated on the basis of:
• Light--Supporting 25 lbs per
square foot
• Medium--Supporting 50 lbs.
Per square foot
• Heavy-- Supporting 75 lbs. Per
square foot
∙Where is the overload?
33

34. May 2019

35. March 2016
• Glendale AZ
• Two hurt

36. March 2015
Raleigh, NC
3 dead when right
scaffold fell from
building
OSHA violations:
- not having a competent person;
- not having guys, ties and/or braces installed according to
the manufacturer’s recommendations; and
- loading scaffolding with more weight than it is designed to
hold.

37. Fully Braced Scaffold
• Scaffolds must be braced per
manufacturer’s instruction
37

38. General Requirements
• Wood scaffold planks must be
nominal 2” x 10”.
• Must be Scaffold Grade Planks
or equivalent.

39. Competent Person
• Inspect scaffolding and
components prior to each
work shift

40. Wind
• Enclosing scaffold will create
wind load
• Engineering calculations
needed.

41. Employer Requirements
Provide means to avoid workers’ being crushed
by collapsing walls during demolition or other
construction activities:
Employers are required to ensure that…
• During demolition, any stand-alone wall that is
more than one story has lateral bracing, unless
the wall was designed to be stand-alone and is
otherwise in a safe condition to be self-
supporting.
• Jacks have a firm foundation. If necessary, the
base of a jack must be blocked or cribbed.
After a load has been raised, it must be
cribbed, blocked or otherwise secured at once.

42. 1926.850(a)
• Prior to permitting employees
to start demolition operations,
an engineering survey shall be
made, by a competent person.
• The employer shall have in
writing evidence that such a
survey has been performed.

43. 1926.850(b)
• When employees are required
to work within a structure to
be demolished which has been
damaged by fire, flood,
explosion, or other cause, the
walls or floor shall be shored
or braced.

44. 1926.850(c)
• All electric, gas, water, steam,
sewer, and other service lines
shall be shut off, capped, or
otherwise controlled, outside
the building line before
demolition work is started.
• In each case, any utility
company which is involved
shall be notified in advance.

45. July 2013
After and Before
OSHA found that Campbell had removed critical
wall supports three days before the collapse —
an action that it calls “willful, egregious
violations” of OSHA standards — and parts of
lower floors before removing upper floors, also
willful violations.
Fines total $313,000 for Campbell and
$84,000 for Benschop.

46. July 2013
• Citation 2 Item 1 Type of Violation: Willful
• 29 CFR 1926.854(h): Wall sections more than one story in height
were permitted to stand alone without lateral bracing and were not
left in a condition safe enough to be self-supporting. All walls were
not in a stable condition at the end of each shift.
• a) Worksite. 2136-38 Market Street: On or about June 5, 2013, the
employer permitted an exterior masonry wall approximately 3
stories in height that was not self-supporting and without lateral
bracing to stand alone exposing employees to crushing hazards.

47. Which Standards Apply?

48. April 2016

49. April 2015
• Bonney Lake OR
• A couple in their 20s and their baby
son were killed when the slab from
a sidewalk construction project fell
from a bridge onto their truck
• A contractor was working on the
permanent bridge barrier on State
Route 410 when the section fell
Monday

50. November 2014
• NY worker dies in demo
incident.
• At the time of the collapse, the
building’s interior partitions
were being demolished by
Formica Construction Inc., a
company that was involved in
a previous fatal accident.

51. Employer Requirements
Designate a competent person:
• OSHA defines a competent person as
“one who is capable of identifying
existing and predictable hazards in the
surroundings or working conditions
which are unsanitary, hazardous, or
dangerous to employees, and who has
authorization to take prompt
corrective measures to eliminate
them.”

52. Employer Requirements
Designate a competent person:
• Employers must designate a competent person for
certain construction activities that may have caught-
in/between hazards:
• Training for scaffold erection.
• Inspections of excavations, the adjacent areas, and
protective systems.
• Engineering survey prior to demolition of a
structure (and any adjacent structure) to
determine the condition of the framing, floors,
and walls, and possibility of unplanned collapse.
• Continuing inspections during demolition to detect
hazards resulting from weakened or deteriorated
floors, or walls, or loosened material.

53. Employer Requirements
Provide training for workers:
• OSHA’s general training requirement for construction
workers is:
• The employer shall instruct each employee in the
recognition and avoidance of unsafe conditions and
the regulations applicable to his work environment
to control or eliminate any hazards or other
exposure to illness or injury.
• Employer must train workers to perform their job and
use the provided equipment safely.
• OSHA standards include specific training requirements
for workers who are involved in erecting,
disassembling, moving, operating, repairing,
maintaining, or inspecting scaffolds.