As much as we look to the NEC to do our various different jobs, sometimes the answer is elsewhere. . You have already been directed to OSHA and I want to add an experience that supports that thought.
When I first started as an inspector, I went into a number of 2 story houses for rough inspections and found that up on the second floor there were large open dropoffs to the first floor or even to the basement.
One time I was checking ceiling lighting and smoke detector Romexs thru the joists/rafters while crossing a second floor hallway bridge that was to eventually get railings on the edge looking out over the 2 story great room to the one side and railings on edge looking out over the 2 story foyer on the other side. . So during the inspection I was walking down a bridge with dropoffs on either side and no corresponding edge bounderies across the joists above. . As I walked forward checking the multiple recessed can lights above, I partially lost my "feel" for the walkway. . My heel came down on a thin flat scrap board but my toes traveled an extra inch or so farther down to the plywood walkway itself. . For the split second it took my toes to hit wood, I thought I had just stepped off the edge and the wave of fear was unexpected and intense.
I never again inspected another rough that had openings larger than 6' wide with no railing of some kind. . For my safety and that of the tradesmen working on those houses, the railings needed to be up and it wasn't the NEC that kept me from inspecting unsafe houses. . It was OSHA. . As an employee of the county, I also fall under OSHA protections and tell the general contractors/builders that fact.
If it's not safe, don't do it. . Code article or not, if your gut says "No", then you should say "No" outloud.
