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As Mr. Tagoia climbed a fixed ladder on the side of a
loading dock at Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA, the side rails broke, he
fell backwards, and severely injured his back.
Subsequently, the failed ladder was discarded before it could be
investigated properly.
We inspected numerous exemplar ladders at the incident
location and performed a detailed photographic analysis of the failed incident
ladder. We researched the ladder
manufacturer’s fabrication process. We compared
the incident ladder photographs to exemplar ladders at the site and from the
factory. We analyzed the failure load of
the design ladder, and we tested the load capacity of the design ladder. We determined that the incident ladder had
been hit by trucks on prior occasions and repaired by improper welding. This welding weakened the ladder at its
critical section. This critical section
failed when Mr. Tagoia used it.
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