Why the Most Overlooked Rooftop Fall Hazard is Actually Openings Not Edges
Why skylights and roof openings continue to cause serious injuries during routine work.
When rooftop fall hazards are discussed, attention often centers on unprotected edges. While edges are undeniably dangerous, incident data and fatality investigations consistently point to another hazard that remains equally deadly and frequently underestimated: roof openings.
Skylights, access hatches, and other openings continue to be involved in serious and fatal falls, particularly during routine maintenance and inspection work. These incidents often occur not because workers ignore hazards, but because openings are misjudged, poorly recognized, or assumed to be safe.
For safety and health professionals, reducing rooftop fall risk requires looking beyond edges and reassessing how openings are identified, evaluated and managed over time.
Why Openings Are Often Underestimated
Unlike roof edges, openings do not always appear dangerous. Skylights may sit flush with the roof surface, blend into surrounding materials, or be obscured by glare, weather, or debris. Some appear solid enough to stand on, even when they are not designed to support weight.
NIOSH fatality investigations (1) have documented incidents in which workers stepped, leaned, or fell onto skylights during routine tasks such as inspections or equipment servicing. In many cases, the workers were not engaged in high-risk activity and did not recognize the opening as a fall hazard until it was too late.
This visual ambiguity makes openings particularly dangerous. Workers may exercise caution near edges while unknowingly placing themselves at risk around openings.
Regulatory Clarity and Common Gaps
OSHA’s Walking Working Surfaces standard (3) requires employers to protect workers from falling through holes and openings, including skylights. These requirements apply regardless of task duration or frequency of exposure.
Despite this clarity, enforcement actions and fatality investigations show that protection for openings is frequently missing, degraded, or no longer effective. Common issues include damaged or displaced covers, openings created during renovations without updated assessments, and reliance on visual distinction rather than physical protection.
These gaps often develop gradually, especially on rooftops that change incrementally rather than through major projects.
Routine Work and Repeated Expoure
Falls to a lower level remain one of the leading causes of fatal occupational injuries, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.(3) Maintenance and repair workers who frequently access rooftops for inspections and servicing are regularly exposed to openings during short-duration tasks.
Routine work increases risk in two ways. Repeated exposure without incident reinforces a false sense of security. Familiarity also reduces the likelihood that workers will reassess hazards during each rooftop visit. Over time, openings become background features rather than active hazards.
How Rooftop Changes Increase Opening Related Risk
Rooftops evolve. Equipment is added, layouts shift, and walking paths change. Solar arrays, HVAC upgrades, and monitoring equipment can reduce clear travel areas and redirect foot traffic closer to existing openings.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration,(4) small-scale solar capacity, which includes rooftop installations, has grown steadily in recent years as organizations pursue energy efficiency and long-term cost control. This growth has significantly increased the number of rooftops that are routinely accessed for installation, inspection, monitoring, and maintenance activities. As solar arrays are added, rooftop layouts often change in ways that are not immediately obvious to workers or supervisors.
Solar installations can reduce open walking areas, create narrow travel paths between panel rows, and redirect foot traffic closer to roof edges, skylights, and other openings. In some cases, areas that were once used as primary access routes become obstructed, forcing workers to improvise new paths that were never evaluated for fall risk. These changes may also limit visibility, making it more difficult to identify hazards such as skylights, hatches, or elevation changes.
While solar systems are often installed as part of a planned project, the long-term safety implications are not always reassessed after installation is complete. Routine maintenance workers may encounter altered conditions months or years later, without updated hazard assessments or revised training. Over time, these evolving rooftop configurations can increase exposure to fall hazards during routine tasks, particularly when original safety assumptions remain unchanged.
Training and Visual Hazard Recognition
OSHA requires employers (5) to train workers to recognize fall hazards and understand procedures for minimizing those hazards. For rooftop openings, effective training must address visual perception, not just rule awareness.
Workers should understand how lighting, glare, and weather can obscure skylights, why translucent panels and covers should never be assumed to support weight, and how rooftop congestion alters safe travel paths. NIOSH investigations show that workers involved in skylight falls often believed they were stepping onto a solid surface.
Practical Steps to Reduce Opening Related Falls
Safety professionals can take several targeted steps to reduce risk associated with rooftop openings:
- Treat skylights and hatches as primary fall hazards
- Reassess openings whenever rooftop layouts change
- Evaluate whether openings are clearly identifiable under varying conditions
- Align refresher training with how often employees access rooftops
- Use near miss reports as indicators of declining hazard recognition
A Broader View of Rooftop Fall Risk
Rooftop openings are common features that require ongoing attention. OSHA standards, BLS injury data, and NIOSH fatality investigations all point to the same conclusion. Protection from falls through openings requires continuous evaluation rather than one time compliance.
By expanding rooftop safety efforts beyond edges and reassessing how openings are managed over time, safety professionals can address one of the most persistent and underestimated fall hazards in general industry.
Rooftop openings may appear harmless. The injuries associated with them are not.
References:
This article originally appeared in the February/March 2026 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.