Sydney window cleaner falls, second CBD incident in two months

A Sydney window cleaner has reportedly been injured after falling four floors onto a balcony while cleaning windows on a hotel at Gloucester Street in The Rocks.

The window cleaner, who was using rope-style window cleaning equipment, is reported to have suffered leg injuries in the fall on Thursday, 10 December.

SafeWork NSW is investigating the event at the same time it released the preliminary findings of a separate incident where two men fell nearly 10 storeys from a Sydney CBD building on Tuesday, 20 October.

The men, who were harnessed, were cleaning windows on a 12-storey building on the corner of Pitt and Bridge Street in the city when the window cleaning cradle that they were working in suddenly fell to the awning below.

The initial investigation findings indicate the cause of the collapse was a failure of the connection between the winch and the cradle. The connection used a single bolt, loaded primarily in tension, at each of the two winches.

It is believed one of the bolts failed, causing a sudden transfer of the load to the bolt at the other end, which then also failed. Since the bolts are hidden within the connection they cannot be inspected without the connection being disassembled.

Both bolts showed signs of significant fatigue-related cracking, which would have weakened them, resulting eventually in the sudden failure that occurred without warning.

“Operators should undertake regular inspections of building maintenance units and suspended scaffolds so that defects such as fatigue cracks are identified,” said Peter Dunphy, SafeWork NSW executive director.

“They should also consider whether their current inspection and maintenance programs are adequate to prevent equipment failure in the future. A similar incident occurred in 2009 due to undetected fatigue cracks on a suspended scaffold, which resulted in the death of one worker and serious injuries to another.

“Fortunately, although the workers were seriously injured, they both survived, but the result could have been very different.”

SafeWork NSW has published a Safety Alert with guidance for owners and users of building maintenance units and suspended scaffolds on how to prevent similar incidents.

In response to the findings, SafeWork NSW will undertake an awareness program and verification activities in early 2016 on buildings where building maintenance units and industrial rope access are used.

Operators seeking further information on building maintenance units should refer to the Australian Standard.

Image courtesy of DncnH under CC