Scaffolds are temporary platform structures built for workers on commercial and industrial construction sites so the workers can reach heights out of their reach. Bricklayers, painters, miners, and electricians all use scaffolds to elevate themselves in their respective trades.

Scaffolds have to be constructed and sometimes when they are improperly installed the scaffolding may collapse causing injury to anyone on, beneath, or around the scaffold.. The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) lists over 65% of construction workers currently use scaffolds in their daily occupation. Nearly 50 people die each year because of collapsed scaffolds, and over 4,000 are injured on or as a direct cause of a faulty, defective, or improperly used scaffolds..

There are many ways in which to cause personal injury when using scaffolds. Following is a list of the most common:

• Improper use of scaffold – using scaffold for other unrelated tasks
• Improper installation – if a scaffold is improperly installed, the scaffold may collapse
• Jumping on scaffold – jumping or hopping on a scaffold may cause the scaffold to give and collapse
• Defective components used to erect scaffold – if built with faulty or defective materials, a scaffold may collapse
• Unskilled construction of scaffold – when someone that is untrained to erect scaffolds

Hazards related to scaffold work include:

• Scaffold Collapse
• Falling off scaffold
• Tools falling off scaffold
• Electric Shock (if working with electricity)