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.