A 47-year-old father of seven died recently after falling through a skylight on a pole barn roof.
The accident happened in the district of Rep. Mike LeMieur (R-Little Falls), who hopes such a tragedy won’t happen again in Minnesota. He sponsors
HF529, which would direct the state building code to require that skylight panels used with corrugated roofing materials, such as those used in pole barns, to have the same load-bearing capacity as the roof surrounding them. It does not apply to skylights with curbs.
The House approved the bill 124-8 April 4.
It awaits action by the Senate Jobs and Economic Growth Committee. Sen. Doug Magnus (R-Slayton) is the Senate sponsor.
“These are preventable injuries. This is a preventable accident,” LeMieur said.
Rep. Tim Mahoney (DFL-St. Paul) said he would vote for approval, but said such code changes would better be recommended by Department of Labor and Industry building professionals, for example through an advisory board, rather than on the House floor.