Horse Sense Safety

Drivers beware - Construction Zone

2010-05-26T11:51:00.003-05:00

Road Work Safety

The article below by Joe Gorman of the Tribune Chronicle relates to the death in a vehicle collision in a Road Work Construction Zone.

This incident didn't directly involve Construction Workers, but did not harm any of the workers on this section of roadway. This involved three vehicles in a "sandwich" incident caused by the third vehicle not anticipating and obeying posted save speed in that zone.

It is VERY IMPORTANT that ALL vehicles obey posted speed limits in areas of long term construction zones as well as to slow down in temporary work zones with only signs and cones.

Come on folks. Slow it down!

Officer: Drivers beware

By JOE GORMAN Tribune Chronicle

Construction zone accidents are all too common, the head of the Trumbull Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol said in the aftermath of a triple fatality on Interstate 80.

Monday's accident in which an SUV was crushed between two tractor-trailers was unusual in that three people were killed, but the crashes themselves are not uncommon, patrol Lt. Michael Orosz said.

Drivers have to be extra alert for sudden stops when they are in a construction zone, he said.

''Be as cautious as you can be,'' Orosz said. ''Sometimes backups happen very abruptly. You just have to be very careful.''

The eastbound lanes of I-80 were closed for about six hours after the accident, which happened about 1:50 p.m. when a FedEx tractor was stopped in front of a Ford Explorer in the right lane not far from a construction site in which traffic lanes had merged. A third vehicle, a tractor-trailer driven by Eugene R. White, 62, of Shiloh, failed to stop and rammed into the Explorer, pushing it into the FedEx trailer.

The driver of the Explorer, Shirley Gilmore, 66, of Warren, was killed, along with her brother and sister, David Westenfelder, 56, and Wendy Frost, 59, both of Surprise, Ariz.

Gilmore and her husband, Larry, own Larry's Super Pawn in Warren. Westenfelder and Frost were in town to help the Gilmores celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

Employees at the pawn shop declined to comment Tuesday.

Gilmore's daughter is Warren police Capt. Janice Gilmore, a third-generation city police officer. Police Chief Timothy Bowers said he was fielding calls Tuesday from colleagues in law enforcement asking what they can do to help.

''It's a horrible tragedy,'' Bowers said. ''The entire law enforcement community has reached out to her. Anything that we can do for the family, we'll do.

''She always seemed like a sweet person,'' Bowers said of Shirley Gilmore.

Statistics by the Ohio Department of Public Safety show that from 2005 to 2008, 67 people were killed in work zone traffic crashes, with a high of 20 in 2005 and a low of 13 in 2007. Statistics for 2009 have not yet been completed.

Orosz said troopers are investigating and that toxicology tests will be done on White, and his truck also will be examined for any mechanical deficiencies, which is normal in any accident involving a commercial vehicle.

For her part, there was not much Gilmore could have done, Orosz said. Drivers need to be looking in their mirrors for vehicles coming from behind, but there was no place for her to go in the stalled traffic, he said.

There was no special detail to enforce safety regulations at the construction site, but a trooper was working a side job Monday for the construction company, Orosz said. The company was performing resurfacing work and bridge repair on I-80, which goes from Mount Everett Road to the Pennsylvania state line.

Shortly after the crash, the Ohio Department of Transportation detoured vehicles from the site, ODOT District 4 spokesman Justin Chesnic said. However, vehicles caught past an exit ramp were stuck the entire time.

Chesnic said trying to get traffic turned around is often done on a case-by-case basis, and sometimes local emergency management agencies assist, but that was not done Monday.

Monday's accident is the second triple fatality this year in Trumbull County in which a semi was involved.

On March 31, three U.S. Marine recruits were killed at state Route 82 and Burnett Road in Warren Township after a semi driven by Donald Williams of Austintown plowed into the back of the car in which they were traveling.

No charges have been filed yet in the accident that killed Joshua Sherbourne, 21, of Southington, Michael Theodore, 19, of Howland, and Zach Nolen, 19, of Newton Falls, although Trumbull County prosecutors have reviewed the crash report and charges are expected.

The three were heading to Cleveland in a car driven by Marine Sgt. Charles Keene to sign final enlistment papers. Also injured in the accident was Carl McDermott III, 18, of Masury, who suffered two broken bones in his neck.

In that accident, state troopers have said Williams' semi struck the rear of the car carrying the Marines just after a red light changed to green and pushed it through the intersection into the path of several other cars.

jgorman@tribtoday.com

Oil Clean Up

2010-05-05T09:38:00.008-05:00

OSHA Warns About Oil Spill Cleanup

The following article was posted in the May 4th issue of the Mobile Press-Register. It was written by Jeff Amy, Business Reporter.

It kinda took me by surprise when I noted that OSHA has warned workers of dangers in the Gulf Oil Spill cleanup. However, in thinking about it, it just makes Horse Sense for them to do what they were organized to do - Help Keep Workers Safe On The Jobsite. This is truly a HUGE worksite.

I appreciate the Press-Register passing this warning for all and any persons being cautioned about the perils dealing with the oil.

OSHA - Cleanup Workers Warned
By Jeff Amy
Business Reporter

As temporary labor firms began to recruit workers for oil spill cleanup, the head of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration said the workplace safety agency wants to make sure workers aren't harmed by the oil.

"Our objective is make sure that the cleanup is safe," said David Michaels, the assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health.

Michaels visited Louisiana on Monday, along with other health and safety agencies, to consult with well owner BP PLC about training. BP's Deepwater Horizon well has been leaking for some two weeks since the rig involved exploded and sank.

OSHA warns thta cleanup workers could face hazards from oil byproducts, dispersants, detergents and degreasers, as well as drowning, heat, falls, insects and snakes.

OSHA requires a four-hour training class before people can clean up oil. That class is not required for people who are helping to set floating booms, although BP has been requiring a separate safety class for them.

Although BP is offering to pay all cleanup workers, Michaels said that if volunteers are used, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires volunteers to receive this same training that OSHA requires.

Michael's visit came as recruitment of workers geared up.

In Alabama, Houston-based Advanced Industrial Services was trying to hire general laborers with port security identification at hourly rates of $10 to $12. The company was also looking for supervisors and safety representatives.

Construct Corps LLC, a construction labor temporary firm, was advertising for general labor in Pascagoula and Gulfport, paying $9 to $10 an hour. The firm, based in Tampa, Fla., also was seeking 200 people with OSHA hazardous waste and emergency response certification.
___________________________________________________
ON THE NET
OSHA oil spill cleanup safety: www.osha.gov/oilspills/index.html

More Work Zone Safety Tips

2010-04-20T15:02:00.002-05:00

Do's and Don'ts In Roadway

Work Zones

The article below from EHS Today by Laura Walter emphasizes some safety "Do's and Don'ts while driving through roadway work zone. This article is based on American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE).

Please read this article closely and put these tips into practice when you enter these zones.

Work Zone Safety Tips

Apr 19, 2010 3:45 PM, By Laura Walter

For many workers, such as police officers, sales personnel, utility workers, truck drivers, construction workers, fire fighters and emergency personnel, the “office” is actually a vehicle. To keep these workers and others safe, American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) members have developed safety tips for drivers passing through work zones.

According to ASSE, transportation accidents have been the leading cause of on-the-job deaths in the United States every year since 1992. In 2007 alone, 835 deaths resulted from motor vehicle crashes in U.S. road construction work zones.

Everyone plays a role in maintaining a safe work zone area during roadway construction. To play your part, follow these tips while driving through a work site:

DO…

Pay attention to the orange diamond-shaped warning signs or electronic message boards posted in advance of a road construction project.
Stay alert. Dedicate your full attention to driving.
Minimize distractions. Avoid changing radio stations, using a cell phone, etc. while driving in a work zone.
Drive carefully and slowly through the construction site; always obey the posted speed limits in the work zone area.
Pay close attention and heed directions on work zone warning signs. Signs and work zone flaggers save lives.
Watch for stopped or slowing traffic. Do not tailgate.
Expect the unexpected. Anticipate potential dangers.
Watch how the traffic ahead is flowing.
Keep an eye out for construction workers, their equipment and vehicles, as well as the vehicles around you.
Use extra caution when driving through a site at night.
Watch for detours and lane diversions.

DO NOT…

Speed up or slow down significantly while going through a work zone.
Slow down to look at the construction work being done.
Resume normal speed until after you emerge completely out of the work zone area.
Tailgate. Most of the accidents within a work zone are rear-end collisions.
Change lanes within a work zone.

Most states have instituted new laws regarding work zones; penalties for speeding in these areas are double that of the normal penalties for speeding in a non-work zone stretch of road.

ASSE recently released its “Work Zone Safety for Highway Construction” standard, A10.47-2009. According to the standard Committee Chair Scott Schneider, “Each year, many construction workers are killed in work zones. Their deaths could have been prevented. They were run over by motorists, backed over by construction vehicles and electrocuted by overhead power lines.”

For more information, download ASSE’s “Prevent Roadway Crashes” brochure.

Road Construction Safety - 1

2010-04-16T16:04:00.003-05:00

Road Construction Safety

The article below by Misty Maynard of the The Ledger Independent tells of a Safety campaign in Kentucky that makes the average motorists to pay close attention to the warning signs where new roadway work or existing roadway maintenance and repair work is on going.

The week of April 19-23 is "Roadway Safety Emphasis Week" all over the country.

I commend Ms Maynard on this very informative article. As a Safety Professional, as well as a normal driver that drives the roads of southwest Alabama where quite a number of construction and repaving work is on going, I make it a special emphasis to slow down to below the posted "Safe Speed Limit" in these areas. I urge all readers to adhere to these speed limits no matter how irritated the drivers following you get. I really like the signs spelled out like they are from a child saying, "My Daddy works here, Please Slow Down."

Come on drivers, slow it down in these work areas. Many workers are only protected by safety cones, not heavy concrete barricades. Those will not keep a vehicle from striking a roadway worker.

Safety campaign looks to curb construction accidents

By MISTY MAYNARD, Staff Writer | Posted: Monday, April 12, 2010 9:20 pm | (0) Comments

Terry Prather/Staff Workers from the Kentucky Department of Highways had a safety zone set up along Kentucky 11, south of Maysville Monday so that falling rocks and debris could be removed from a ditch line along the roadway. Motorists are urged to use caution while traveling through work zones.

As Michael Hickerson stood in the curve of Kentucky 324 near Wedonia directing traffic through a construction zone recently, he became concerned when an approaching driver did not seem to notice the stop sign on display.

There was oncoming traffic in the open lane and Hickerson feared an accident if he couldn't catch the driver's attention. He pushed the sign out farther and motioned for the driver to stop.

"She finally realized what I was trying to do," Hickerson said. "It could've been very, very bad."

Hickerson, a highway equipment operator with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's Mason County maintenance crews. said he sees incidences like these far too often. Driver inattention is a major factor in accidents in work zones and puts Hickerson and all other employees of the KYTC at risk.

In 2009, nine people died and 140 were injured in highway construction and maintenance work zones in Kentucky.

Nationally, in 2008 there were 720 work zone fatalities nationwide and more than 40,000 people injured. In the U.S., there is on work zone fatality every 10 hours and one work zone injury every 13 minutes. Eighty-five percent of the fatalities are motorists.

Those statistics are the reason why KYTC designates one week every April to a work zone safety campaign. KYTC is hosting events across the state this week to highlight the safety message.

"Springtime is construction time," said KYTC District 9 spokesman Allen Blair, making April a perfect time for the safety campaign.

Blair said accidents in work zones are easily prevented, if drivers pay attention and proceed cautiously through the zones.

"Minimize your distractions, slow down, expect the unexpected," Blair said.

Hickerson said cell phones in particular are a major distraction. However, crews are at risk by people eating while driving, reading the newspaper, putting on makeup, or any other activity that diverts their attention from the roadway.

District 9, which covers 10 counties including Mason County, has been fortunate, Blair said, with few accidents occurring.

"We've had a lot of close calls," Blair said.

Maintenance crews abide by strict federal guidelines for establishing a work zone and notifying approaching drivers of the work ahead.

Beginning Monday on Kentucky 11, a crew of seven plus a contractor worked to clean a ditch and free loose debris in Maysville. Though the crew only had to close the shoulder, cones were set up at intervals of 20 feet beginning 190 feet before the actual work site to alert drivers of the maintenance.

Blair said projects that close a lane have guidelines for how much advance warning and space is needed to allow drivers to merge into another lane.

In addition to the cones, signs announcing the work site are displayed, there are flashing lights on vehicles and employees wear bright vests, t-shirts, jackets and hats for easy visibility.

The guidelines used for work zones are designed for maximum efficiency and safety, Blair said.

District 9 has several upcoming projects in the area. Time lines for the projects depend on weather.

Included in the projects are:

-- Bridge repairs on Kentucky 111 and Kentucky 3302 in Fleming County, and Kentucky 57 in Lewis County.

-- Safety improvements along 12 miles of U.S. 62 in Mason County including drainage and guardrail repairs.

-- Resurfacing of about 2.7 miles of Kentucky 111 near Grange City in Fleming County and more than 2 miles of Kentucky 8 and Kentucky 2515 in Mason County.

Contact Misty Maynard at misty.maynard@lee.net or call 606-564-9091, ext. 272.

For more area news, visit www.maysville-online.com.

HOSPITAL FALL PROTECTION

2009-12-20T15:57:00.006-06:00

Patient and Family Fall Prevention
by Providence Hospital - Mobile, AL

Recently, I spent several days in Providence Hospital. In the info package that is issued to all patients was a brochure titled "Patient and Family Fall Prevention."

After reading this publication I feel like this is an item that is appropriate for any hospital, anywhere for Patients, Staff Personnel and Family Members as it just makes Horse Sense.

Personnel at Providence Hospital has graciously agreed with me to post the information in this blog site as it is so applicable to so many people in so many different ways to prevent falls in hospitals.

Providence Hospital

Patient and Family Fall Protection

At Providence Hospital We are committed to Providing Education to Our Patients and Family Members to Ensure Safety for All. Thank you for choosing Providence Hospital.

FALL FACTS

The danger of falling is very real for hospitalized patients. There are several factors that increase this risk; *Current Illness * New and unfamiliar surroundings * Certain medications, such as sleeping aids, pain relievers, water pills, and laxatives * Previous fall history *Shortness of breath, stroke, muscle weakness, unsteady gait (walking), fever, urgent need to use the restroom * New confusion or disorientation from your current illness * Dementia, depression, or psychosis * Sensory impairments, such as numbness in feet; vision or hearing problems * Post treatment procedure/surgery *Medical devices in use.

YOUR FAMILY AND VISITORS CAN HELP PREVENT FALLS BY:

*Staying with you if necessary *Informing the nurse of any changes they see in your behavior or thinking. *Informing the nurse if you have a history of falls. *Keeping the room free from clutter. *Leaving the bed in lowest position and notify the nurse upon leaving your room.

WHAT CAN I DO TO PREVENT FALLS?

Tell your nurse if you feel you are at risk to fall due to: *Recent falls. *Periods of dizziness or blurred vision. * Weakness or loss of balance. *Require a walker, crutches, or cane when walking. *Have trouble feeling your feet on the ground. *You just "feel different."

Follow the following guidelines to help prevent falls:

*Refrain from walking without assistance when you must take equipment such as IV poles with you. *Follow the red, yellow, and green precaution signs (posted in your room). *Do not attempt to get up without the nurses assistance.

HOW WILL THE STAFF KNOW THAT I AM AT RISK TO FALL?

*Having a higher risk to fall may occur at different times throughout your hospital stay. Your nurse will be accessing your risk to fall each shift. *If a nurse determines that you are at risk to fall or if you or your family feel that you are at risk, we provide a special plan of care to address safety issues and reduce the danger of an accidental fall and injury.

WHAT ARE THE COMMON PRACTICES THAT THE STAFF WILL FOLLOW IF I AM AT RISK TO FALL?

The nurses and nursing assistants develop fall prevention practices based on your individual risk factors. Some of the most common fall prevention practices used at Providence Hospital include; *A fall logo may be placed on your door and on your medical chart to alert other health care workers of your risk to fall. Fall leaves are used in this logo. *A yellow armband may be used to ensure that other health care workers are aware of your risk to fall in case you leave your room. *We may ask you to wear our yellow non-skid slippers when you are out of the bed. *Hourly rounding may be done by staff. This means the staff will come to your room hourly to see if you need any help. If you are sleeping, the staff will be careful not to wake you. This frequent rounding allows us to help you meet your needs. *You will be instructed to use the call light for help getting into and out of your bed or chair to use the urinal or bedpan, walk to the bathroom, or retrieve something out of your reach. *A bed alarm may be used to alert the nurses that you need to get out of bed. *Signs will be used to inform you of how much assistance you need to get out of bed.

Fall Prevention Instructions For Our Patients
*Don't walk with equipment
*Call for nurse assistance when getting up from the bed, chair or bathroom.
*Follow precaution signs:
RED - Don't get up without assistance. YELLOW - Don't get up without a nurse or family member assisting you. GREEN - You may get up without assistance.

While our program is very beneficial in preventing falls, its success depends entirely upon staff, patients, and visitors participating completely in the program.

Gas Line Explosion

2009-12-03T11:18:00.004-06:00

High Fines For Explosion

The post below from The Houston Business Journal and denvernews@bizjournals.com shows that some Federal Agencies take incidents that cause fatalities and/or catastrophies are fined with enough impact to let huge corporations do what they wish with disregard to safety procedures spelled out by these Programs.

Most of my posts are referred to OSHA incidents, but other Agencies have rules and seem to be not ashamed to place heavy fines for such incidents.

In reference to OSHA, I have noted in past posts that I feel that their fines are inadequate to cover make a difference to Large Corporations that just pay a small fine and continue to operate unsafely.

It seems that The Department of Transportation has no qualms about issuing penalties that get the attention FINANCIALLY of these large corporations.

The fatality in this incident was only one person. However, this could have easily caused multiple fatalities and huge monetary costs. This person, apparently, had not been advised of the location of the pipe line and while grading for a right of way struck the existing line with his dozer.

El Paso Corp. hit with $2.3M safety penalty

Houston Business Journal

The U.S. Department of Transportation has levied what it calls a record penalty of $2.3 million against gas-pipeline company El Paso Corp. and its subsidiary, Colorado Interstate Gas Co., in connection with a fatal 2006 pipeline explosion in Wyoming.

The civil penalty, for alleged violations of federal pipeline safety regulations, is the largest DOT has ever levied against a pipeline company under its oversight, the agency said.

The penalty is in connection with an explosion in Laramie County, Wyo., in which the Rockies Express Pipeline, a gas pipeline owned by Wyoming Interstate Co. Ltd. and operated by Colorado Interstate Gas Co., both subsidiaries of Houston-based El Paso Corp. (NYSE: EP), was struck by a bulldozer, resulting in the release of natural gas, a subsequent explosion and fire, and the death of the bulldozer’s driver.

The operator was Bobby Ray Owens Jr., 52, of Louisiana, according to news reports. He worked for a construction company, not El Paso.

“At the time of the accident, the bulldozer operator was attempting to grade nearby land to build a right of way for the Rockies Express Pipeline,” DOT said in a statement.

DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which investigated the incident, “discovered the companies did not comply with federal regulations covering the locating and marking of buried pipeline facilities,” the agency said.

“Federal requirements are in place to provide protections for America’s most important assets, its citizens,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in the statement. “The department will hold pipeline operators accountable for the safety of those who live and work in the vicinity of their systems and negligence will not be tolerated.”

El Paso Corp. and Colorado Springs-based Colorado Interstate Gas also were ordered to take various actions “to ensure compliance with federal pipeline safety regulations.” They include revising corporate procedures for making construction records, maps, and operating history available to operating personnel, and having supervisors to conduct unannounced reviews of work performed by El Paso line locators to ensure applicable procedures are being followed.

In a statement to The Associated Press, an El Paso Corp. spokesman said that the company has improved its procedures, but he also said federal officials should have taken into account what he called errors by the construction company working at the site as well as the complexity of the situation.

denvernews@bizjournals.com

2009 Top Ten Violations

2009-10-29T10:13:00.005-05:00

Top Ten Violations - 2009

The article below from Injury Board.com, National News Desk featuring Jane Akre lists the top ten Violations for 2009 to date.

See if you, your company or anyone to whom these violations apply are guilty, you should take immediate action to correct the causes of these basic items for Safe Work on your job sites.

Top 10 Safety Violations for 2009
Posted by Chrissie Cole
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 10:24 PM EST
Category: In The Workplace
Tags: OSHA, Safety Violations, Workplace Safety, Construction Safety, Falls

LEARN MORE

* InjuryBoard Workplace Injury Help Center
* NSC.org
* NSC’s Safety+Health Magazine

IMAGE SOURCE: © Wikimedia Commons

The Top 10 workplace violations for 2009 has been released by the U.S. Department of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

The number of top-10 violations have increased nearly 30 percent during the same period since 2008.

Workplace Violations:

10. Machine Guarding - 2,364 violations

Any machine part, function or process that has the ability to cause injury must be safeguarded.

9. Electrical - 2,556 violations

Working with electricity can be particularly dangerous. Engineers, electricians and others work directly with electricity (i.e. circuit assemblies). While others (i.e. sales people) indirectly work with it but may also be exposed to electrical hazards.

8. Powered Industrial Trucks - 2,993 violations

Thousands of injuries occur each year in the US workplace, related to powered industrial trucks or forklifts. Employees can suffer injury when lift trucks drive off loading docks, when they are struck by a lift truck or when they fall while on elevated pallets.

7. Ladders – 3,072 violations

Stairways and ladders are a major source of injuries and fatalities among construction workers.

6. Electrical (Wiring) – 3,079 violations

See electrical above.

5. Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) – 3,321 violations

“Lockout/Tagout” refers to specific practices and procedures to safeguard employees from the unexpected startup of machinery and equipment, or the release of hazardous energy. An estimated 3 million workers service equipment and face the risk of injury if lockout/tagout is not properly implemented.

4. Respiratory Protection – 3,803 violations

Respirators protect workers from insufficient oxygen environments, harmful sprays, gases, vapors, smokes, dusts and fogs. These hazards can cause cancer and other diseases or death.

3. Hazard Communication - 6,378 violations

A written hazard communication program is an essential element for every company. Chemical importers and manufacturers are required to evaluate the hazards of the chemicals they import or produce, and prepare labels and safety data sheets to convey the hazard information to their customers.

2. Fall Protection – 6,771 violations

The majority of falls are from ladders and roofs. Protection must be provided to workers at four feet in general industry, five feet in maritime and six feet in construction.

1. Scaffolding – 9,093 violations

Scaffold accidents are most often attributed to the planking or support giving way, or from the employee slipping or being struck by a falling object.

The findings were presented this week at the NCS’s Annual Congress & Expo. A final report will be published in the December issue of the NSC’s Safety+Health Magazine. #

Read more: http://www.injuryboard.com/national-news/top-10-safety-violations-for-2009-.aspx?googleid=273474#ixzz0VL2Kwn21

Confined Space Requirements

2009-10-14T10:39:00.004-05:00

The article below shows the necessity of proper training of workers, particularly while working in confined spaces. There are several Safety Training Specialty facilities in the Mobile area that can perform on-site safety analysis, provide safety programs and training for the employees of companies such as the one in the article below.

I can see no excuse for incidents like the ones listed below.

From the Mobile Press-Register, by Connie Baggett, staff reporter, on Thursday, October 8, 2009

OSHA INVESTIGATION

Brewton Railcar Repair is Cited

Brewton – A railcar repair company could face some $360,000 in fines after a federal probe into an April incident that left four workers injured, two of them seriously.

Frit Car Inc. spokeswoman Carla Carpenter said the company addressed many of the issues immediately after the accident, and all of the problems are under review.

Carpenter said the company’s employees are its “most valuable asset,” and improvements in safety are ongoing.

A news release from the U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration released this week said Frit Car failed to adequately train workers regarding confined space procedures.

The investigation found Frit Car had no training for workers or rescuers on site, as is required.
Workers who can be exposed to potentially deadly gases in confined spaces, such as railcars, are protected by strict guidelines, according to OSHA rules.

Several serious infractions were cited, as well as numerous others, such as the lack of guardrails and adequate shower facilities as well as noise exposure, bad housekeeping and bad record keeping.

The investigation followed an incident April 3 in which two employees were overcome by potentially deadly fumes inside a railcar and had to be taken by helicopter to area hospitals.

Another employee was taken to a hospital by ambulance and a fourth went home to recover.

Farm Incidents Cause High Fatalities

2009-09-25T16:22:00.005-05:00

Farm Accidents One of the Most
Dangerous Occupations

The article below from Indiana Prairie Farmer notes that Farming is one of the most dangerous occupations, especially in incidents caused by Tractor Overturns.

Overturns of farm equipment causes many fatalities, however about any type incident that can be thought possible and many thought to be impossible, or at least impractical, causes numerous serious and dismemberment injuries than any other known occupation.

Farms utilize family members in most farm related tasks, many of whom are family members that are not allowable in off the farm industries due to age.

I posted a couple of photos of actual Farm Equipment incidents that can only show a photo of what the result of an incident, but not show where any Horse Sense should have been used to prevent these incidents.

Tractor Overturns Still Lead Farm Fatality Causes

Fatalities higher again in 2008.

Tom Bechman

Published: Sep 24, 2009

The bad news from Bill field, Purdue University safety specialist, is that farm fatalities in Indiana crept back up again in '08, after bottoming at 8 fatalities in '06. It's the second straight year fatalities have been on the increase. Field released official numbers during a press conference at the Indiana Farm Bureau state headquarters in Indianapolis last week;

Last week marked the official observance of National Farm Safety Week. And the Indiana data shows, however, it's important to practice safety every day, not just during one week of the year.

National fatality statistics are based on estimates. Field says the numbers are a guess at best. The Indiana numbers, however, are firm. Field and his staff compile them based upon reports from clipping services and other information. They also cross-check them with information collected at the state level.

"The latest information at the national level says that fatalities in farming are 10 times more common than in industry as a whole," says Gail Deboy, also of Purdue. "For last year the national report listed agriculture as the number one most dangerous occupation in America, ahead of mining and construction."

The best news, perhaps, is that the 30-year trend is still toward far fewer farm fatalities than in the past, especially amongst children. "In 1977 a third of all deaths were children, many of them young children. Riding with dad on the tractor and becoming involved in some sort of accident was a major cause.

While there was no particular pattern to what caused an increase in fatalities last year, Field says tractor overturns remain the single most deadly action on the farm. About 25% of the deaths were due to overturns. Deboy says many times these were people riding older tractors that did not have Rollover Protective Structures (ROPS) installed.

Combine extra riders on tractors with tractor overturns, other tractor-related deaths and entanglements, and it accounts for about 75% of last year's farm fatalities, Field says. Grain bin entrapments get a lot of publicity because they nearly always result in death, but the number of people who die in grain bins each year is still far fewer than the number who die in tractor or implement-related mishaps.

Tractor roadway crash fatalities are also included in the newly-released data, as long as a tractor or farm implement was involved, Field notes. There was a trend toward increasing numbers of farmers dieing in these types of accidents, but it didn't really show up last year, he notes.

Indiana Farm Bureau stepped to the plate and campaigned hard to raise awareness for farmers traveling on roadways with equipment, and also started campaigns to educate the public about the hazards of traveling rule roads. A video was produced with Purdue, that has been widely shown to all types of audiences.

Through August of this year, the unofficial farm fatality total is 10 in Indiana. Deboy hope that number stays lower than the '08 number, That means people must be very attentive during harvest, An unusually high number of fatalities occurred in the fall last year.

Get Away From Unloading/Loading

2009-09-10T09:32:00.006-05:00

Stay Well Away From Truck
Loading/Unloading

The article below from 6 WLNS.com points out some of the dangers that occur during loading and unloading, specifically tractor/trailer loads.

However, it holds true for drivers and any other persons in a Non-essential position to clear themselves away from loading and unloading situations whether it be on a construction job site or, in fact at any location.

Many is the time that I've seen drivers stand beside their rigs while their truck is being loaded by heavy equipment such as dirt/rock hauling operations. Several times I've had to seek medical attention to one of these persons. I've also seen drivers hop up on their rigs and loosen the binding chains without assuring that the loads are secured from falling on the person releasing the bindings. Trained professional riggers should be the ones to handle these operations. The driver can go back and stow their rigging and bindins after the load is removed.

Failure to adhere to this simple and safe practice procedure just plain DOES NOT adhere to Horse Sense methods of Safety.

Man Crushed In Construction Accident

A freak accident took the life of a truck driver. Livingston County officials say falling concrete killed a truck driver in Howell Township on East M-59 near Grand River. Construction of a concrete wall came to a crashing halt. That crash killed Richard Browand, a 61-year-old truck driver for Mack Transport. Livingston County Sheriff Bob Bezotte calls it a tragic accident.

Bob Bezotte, Livingston County Sheriff: "He was in the wrong place at the wrong time when they were unloading the cement blocks. He was on the opposite side of the truck and when they took it off, the truck shifted."

A 3,500 pound slab of concrete fell off the truck and crushed him.

Bob Bezotte: "It crushed him in the chest area. He was alive at the scene, and then we got him to the hospital, the internal bleeding and the crush took his life."

Bezotte says construction accidents happen from time to time, but the saddest thing about this one is that it was avoidable.

Bob Bezotte: "When you're unloading a semi, ya know, people standing around a semi need to be back and the truck drivers and anyone else who's not involved with the unloading of the trucks."

It's advice that's too late for Browand. Bezotte says this accident should serve as a wakeup call for all construction workers to put safety first. The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating.

Million Dollar + Fines

2009-09-04T18:57:00.004-05:00

Million Dollar Plus Fines by OSHA

The items below were emailed to me by a friend and fellow Safety Professional. It shows that OSHA CAN issue high enough fines to get some of the larger corporatons' attention.

Nutrition Products Co. Facing $1M Plus in OSHA Fines.

The fines came after the Wisconsin plant was inspected as a result of a complaint alleging numerous hazards. Among other violations, OSHA issued willful citations for failure to comply with confined space and lockout/tagout regulations.

Chem Company Cited Heavily for Exposing Employees to Poison.

The St. Louis–based company was inspected after OSHA learned that employees had been admitted to local hospitals after being contaminated with an unknown powder. Investigators determined that employees were exposed to paranitroaniline (PNA), a chemical that reduces the ability of the blood to transport oxygen. OSHA issued 21 willful citations, 20 of which were cited on a per-instance basis and assessed fines totaling $1.2 million.

Poultry Company Pleads Guilty in Employee Exposure Case.

Following the death of an employee at an Arkansas plant, the company was charged with criminal violations and ordered by a federal court to pay a $500,000 penalty.

Sugar Company Warned Long Before Accident Occurred.

The Georgia refinery was cited and fined following an accident associated with sugar dust that killed 14 people. OSHA assessed fines of $8.7 million, the third largest in OSHA history.

Prevention of Falls on Construction Sites

2009-08-26T06:50:00.003-05:00

Much More Related to Falls

The article below, posted in the Daily Community News and Construction Record points out several results of Fall Protection on construction sites. However, there are several things that can be critical and probably are a major cause of injuries when workers seem to be PROBABLY a major cause of injuries.

The Number One item I'd like to point out is the PROPER TRAINING in the use of body harnesses. On most jobsites that I've been on, the contractor hands their workers working more than 6 feet above ground or floor levels "a harness" to use while working at those levels.

I have found that VERY FEW workers are trained in the ways to inspect all the components, how to assure that there ia a proper fit of the harness how to properly adjust the harness to fit that individual's body, what to do if the worker does fall, what is the site Rescue Plan if someone falls, how long the worker can remain hanging in a harness before passing out, and many more critical items that is a must know related to fall protection.

Folks, this is 'CRITICAL PERSONAL PROTECTION" that ALL workers using harnesses MUST be aware of and PROPERLY trained in their use and being recovered in case of an incident. This is just plain HORSE SENSE.

Accidents spur Pennsylvania fall safety push

PITTSBURGH

Following four recent fatal construction fall accidents in a week in southwestern Pennsylvania, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has called on construction companies to ensure employees working above six feet have the proper equipment to protect themselves from falls on the job.

The first of the fatal falls happened on Friday, Aug. 15 and they ranged in heights from two to 13 storeys.

“Falls are the leading cause of fatalities in the construction industry,” said Robert Szymanski, director of the Pittsburgh OSHA office, in a statement.

“These recent accidents are tragic reminders of the dangers posed to workers when adequate protection is not provided.”

There are a number of ways to protect workers from falls including guardrail systems, safety net systems and personal fall arrest systems, including properly anchored body harnesses and lanyards, as well as through the use of safe work practices and training. OSHA conducted almost 39,000 inspections and found nearly 88,000 violations of its standards and regulations in fiscal year 2008.

-DCN News Services

Fatal Falls

2009-08-20T05:47:00.003-05:00

OSHA and Fall Protection

In the article below from the Pittsburg Post-Gazette, by Kaitlynn Riely, regarding fall protection from falling off buildings and/or scaffolding, an Area Director for OSHA states that contractors should reassess their fall protection methods following four recent fatalities in southwestern Pennsylvania.

This article addresses the one relatively small area of this country compared to the Nationwide incidents that prove fatal to workers that are not properly equipped and properly trained in the safe, Horse Sense ways to use this type lifesaving equipment.

In many of these fatal incidents, it has been proved that contractors are not training their supervisors in the use of these preventive measures, therefore they are not passing down these measures to their workers that are put in to perilous situations.

I feel that there are five words that could be used to correct this: TRAINING, ATTITUDE, TRAINING, ATTITUDE AND TRAINING WITH ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENTS to the program.

Four deaths shed light on falling hazards

OSHA director says construction sites should reassess prevention measures

Thursday, August 20, 2009

By Kaitlynn Riely, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Construction sites should reassess their fall prevention methods following the four recent fatalities resulting from people falling off buildings or scaffolding in southwestern Pennsylvania, a director for the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration said yesterday.

"One worker fall accident is unacceptable, but four falls within a few days' time is completely incomprehensible," said Robert Szymanski, the area director for OSHA's Pittsburgh office.

The most recent accident was Tuesday, when Roy Pfoertner, 53, of New Kensington, was working on the roof of the Pennsylvanian apartment building Downtown. He fell 13 stories to the sidewalk. He was part of a crew doing masonry work on the roof for the contractor, Mariani and Richards.

Three more construction-related deaths from falling have occurred within the past week. Carl Beck, 29, of Butler, fell 42 feet from a roof in North Strabane, Washington County, on Saturday morning. On Friday morning, Gary E. Dwire, 56, fell from a house in New Kensington, and Michael Grinder, 40, fell two stories at a site in Monessen.

Historically, fatalities in the workplace have been on the decline in recent years, and Mr. Szymanski said last week his office was projecting that they might achieve a single-digit record low for fatalities for the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. But the four fatalities since Friday bring the total to 11 workplace fatalities for this year.

In the construction industry nationally, falls account for nearly 50 percent of all fatalities, Mr. Szymanski said.

"If you eliminate fall hazards in construction, you would eliminate 50 percent of fatalities right off the bat," he said.

Of course, the goal is to have zero fatalities in the workplace every year, he said.

To achieve this goal, OSHA mandates safety requirements that protect against hazards like falling. Employers are required to protect their workers from falls when they are working six feet or higher above an adjacent surface by one of three methods -- a guardrail system, a personal fall arrest system like a body harness and line or a safety net.

There is an entire book of OSHA standards related to construction, but Mr. Szymanski emphasized these three methods of fall protection as imperative.

"I'm asking that employers take time to pause and assess their work sites immediately for appropriate fall protection systems," he said.

OSHA conducts regular inspections of workplaces to verify they are complying with the standards. The agency investigates all workplace deaths, and have started investigations for the four fatalities, including the one that occurred Tuesday.

If violations of OSHA standards are identified through the investigations, penalties may be assessed according to the circumstances, Mr. Szymanski said. These can include fines and recommendations to minimize risk.

Kaitlynn Riely can be reached at kriely@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1478.

First published on August 20, 2009 at 12:31 am

Too Many Scaffold Colapses

2009-08-19T09:32:00.003-05:00

How Many More Deaths Due To
Improper Scaffolding????

The article below from the New York Times by Anahad O'Conner and Colin Moynihan relates to another Fatality to a worker on a stage scaffold. Proper Safety equipment either was not available or the workers on these scaffolds were not properly trained in Fall Protection when working from scaffolding.

In this case, the workers on the stage scaffold should have been anchored so that if and when the stage fell, the workers would have been saved by Personal Protection Fall Equipment.

There is no excuse for situations like and the contractors should have to pay LARGE fines for the lack of proper safety equipment and safe use training for each jobsite or each time the scaffold is relocated.

The use of a Job Safety Analysis should have been completed and reviewed and signed off by the workers before any work was started. This applies to work EACH DAY or when the scaffolding is relocated.

Come on People. Lets wake up and quit killing workers working from scaffolding. Use some Horse Sense and quit doing it the Donkey Way and protect your employees.

Worker Falls Four Stories to His Death When a Scaffold Collapses in Brooklyn

Two workers left dangling when a scaffold gave way were pulled into a fourth-floor window by firefighters. The accident happened at the Ansonia on 12th Street in Park Slope.

By ANAHAD O’CONNOR and COLIN MOYNIHAN

Published: August 18, 2009

A 42-year-old construction worker at a luxury apartment building in Brooklyn plunged four stories to his death Tuesday evening when he stepped onto a scaffold that suddenly gave way, the authorities and witnesses said. Two co-workers tethered to harnesses were left dangling in the air, and were rescued by firefighters who arrived moments later as anxious neighbors witnessed the drama.

Skip to next paragraph

Henryk Siebor

“It was this terrible, ripping, tearing sound,” said Ilene Rosen, who was down the block when the scaffold gave way.

Ms. Rosen and other area residents said they looked up to see the two workers who had been on the scaffold now dangling in the air, and a fourth worker standing on a second scaffold.

“He’s dead, he’s dead,” one of the workers shouted of the man below.

The cause was being investigated, the authorities said, but it appeared that both mechanical failure and human error played some role in the collapse, which occurred about 5:30 p.m. at the Ansonia, a former clock factory that was converted to residential apartments over the years by various developers. The accident took place at one of the buildings, a six-story prewar at 438 12th Street in Park Slope.

Workers had been replacing bricks on the building’s facade for the past three months, and residents who saw them there on an almost daily basis said they virtually always appeared to be wearing safety harnesses. Investigators said Tuesday night that the worker who died — Henryk Siebor of 100 Diamond Street in Brooklyn — was wearing his harness at the time of the accident, but it may not have been secured, as required by state law.

Witnesses said that four men had been working throughout the day on two separate scaffolds placed side by side — two men to a scaffold — on the fifth floor of the building. They were nearing the end of the day’s work when the men on one scaffold told their superior, Mr. Siebor, on the adjacent scaffold that there was a problem with the way the rig was “tied off,” said Robert D. LiMandri, the commissioner of the Buildings Department.

“They were concerned,” he said. “They looked to their colleague who was senior on the job, and asked him to come over and investigate. He did that.”

But as Mr. Siebor stepped onto the scaffold, one of the lines holding it to the building gave way, sending the scaffold swinging against the building as he plunged to his death, landing on a first-floor terrace below.

Secured by their harnesses, the two men dangling in the air clung to the building for several minutes as firefighters from a department about a block away raced to the building.

When firefighters arrived, they smashed through a fourth-floor apartment door to reach the two men. A fire truck on the ground erected a ladder to help in the rescue, and the two men were pulled through a window. The fourth man, who was on the scaffold that remained intact, was helped off by other firefighters.

Donna Mitchell, who works in a building across the street, said she was outside when she heard a commotion and looked up.

“I saw fire trucks, and I see these two construction workers hanging on by the harness,” she said. “They still had their harness attached to them and they were hanging on.”

Ms. Mitchell said that to get to the men, firefighters smashed through a children’s safety guard and yelled for the men to reach for the window.

“The guys were close enough to the window, so they all reached out their hands,” she said. “It was like four firemen in the window, and one held him and the rest inside supported him and pulled him in.”

“It really looked scary,” she added.

Mr. Siebor came to New York four years ago from Rzeszow, a city of about 170,000 in southeastern Poland, and would regularly send money to his family back home, said a relative, who spoke Polish through a neighbor who interpreted. The relative, who would not give her name, said Mr. Siebor was married with three children: 20-year-old and 16-year-old daughters and a son, Robert, 16, who was visiting New York and apparently was at the Ansonia when his father died.

According to the Buildings Department’s online database, the Ansonia building received permits in March for masonry reconstruction and in April for the erection of a heavy-duty sidewalk shed. A spokeswoman from the Buildings Department said late Tuesday night that a stop-work order had been issued for the site, and that citations for violations were expected pending the outcome of the investigation.

There was no response to calls for comment made to the company responsible for the scaffold, Nova Restoration, which has offices in Brooklyn.

The Ansonia complex was once one of the largest clock factories in the world before it was converted to residential apartments, some selling for more than a million dollars.

Mr. LiMandri of the Buildings Department said that the agency would continue investigating why one of the lines that secured the scaffold gave way.

“We have two people who are lucky,” he said. “They are lucky to be alive.”

Reporting was contributed by Sewell Chan, Kareem Fahim, Christine Hauser, Jennifer 8. Lee and James Oberman.

Call Before Digging

2009-08-16T17:20:00.010-05:00

I received the following as an email from a friend. It really makes you think before you undertake a job whether it be in an inner city or out in rural roads!

CALL BEFORE YOU DIG!!!

`You may or may not know about the law in the USA requiring you call for utility locating before you do any excavation. The pictures below are a result of a farmer using a post hole digger without calling for "locates," and he hit an underground, high-pressure cross-country gas pipe.

They never did find the guy……….took out 2 homes.

Hope it makes you think before you dig.....

Oregon's OSHA Has The Right Idea

2009-08-14T09:41:00.003-05:00

Oregon's OSHA Looks at Bigger Fines

The article below from Daily Journal of Commerce by Justin Carinci, brings up two of my Pet Peeves regarding incentives toward constructions companies that are performing Unsafe Operations on their jobsites that cause fatalities and/or serious and willful safety violations.

These two items that I have touted are the ATTITUDE of, especially the larger, more affluent companies that they have so much money that they don't care to pay a "slap on the wrist" monetary fine to willful or fatal incidents on their jobsites. The other is the fact the these fines are not financially significient to "Get their Attention."

The company official in this article seems to have this "I'm a big boy and I have plenty of money to pay for incidents and continue to keep my bigger than thou and too rich for a little $65,000 fine to make me Safety Conscious on my jobsites." These are the ones that should have their willful and fatal fines multiplied by at least 10 times the $65,000. A few these should make significient Attitude Adjustments to these type companies.

I have corresponded with Mr. Wood of the Oregon OSHA in the past and am in full agreement with him that SOMETHING needs to be done about these type companies. I fully agree that the 2 or 3 small companies would be immediately put out of business for a fine of $65,000. However, does that tiny company get a free ride and stay in business if they have one fatal incident and kills 1/3 of their employees?

There are a large number of approaches to these delimas that a Oregon OSHA will have to delve into. I just want to encourage Mr. Wood and his group to continue to iron out some of these approaches and come up with solutions that can, not only make Oregon OSHA's jobsites a safer place to work.

OSHA eyes bigger fines for safety violations

POSTED: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 04:06 PM CDT
BY: Justin Carinci
Tags: Oregon OSHA, Turner Construction

Dan Carter/DJC

Oregon OSHA officials are considering raising the fines for serious workplace safety violations and making bigger employers pay more. In the construction industry, however, the largest general contractors say bigger fines won’t make them any safer.

The commitment to safety should come from the companies themselves, said Dan Kavanaugh, vice president and general manager with Turner Construction Co.

“From our philosophy, money is not the motivator,” he said “A fine doesn’t mean anything to us.”

Right now, Oregon OSHA calculates fines based on two factors: the probability that an accident will occur and the severity of that accident. The most severe accident – one that causes a death – carries a maximum fine of $5,000.

That isn’t much of a financial hit for huge companies, said Michael Wood, Oregon OSHA administrator. Wood has the authority, at his discretion, to add up to $2,000 to each penalty in egregious cases.

Wood said he’s considering issuing fines on a sliding scale, based on the company’s size, and setting the new cap at $7,000, the highest Oregon OSHA can go under state law. “It’s certainly one of the things we’re looking at,” he said.

Smaller companies now can get a break of up to 30 percent on fines, Wood said. But that’s a smaller break than other states offer, and the issue probably will come up when Oregon OSHA starts talking, later this month, about updating its rules.

Safety violations made news last week, when Oregon OSHA announced penalties totaling $90,000 stemming from a February accident in which a welder was killed in a Boardman potato processing plant owned by ConAgra Foods. ConAgra received 13 fines totaling $65,000; NW Metal Fabricators, the company performing the repairs at the plant, received five fines totaling $25,000.

Wood acknowledged that a $65,000 fine wouldn’t have a great effect on a giant company such as ConAgra, which had $12.7 billion in sales for the fiscal year that ended in May. But he said Oregon OSHA’s main role is to push employers to keep workplaces safe, not to penalize them.

“It isn’t about an appropriate punishment,” Wood said. “This is about being a motivation to the employers.
“What motivates Fred’s Roofing, (which) has two employees, is going to be different than what motivates ConAgra.”

That’s especially true in construction, a field that has grown safer and more professional thanks in part to high-profile efforts by the largest companies. These companies generally don’t flout safety laws, Kavanaugh said.

An “absolutely, unequivocally fundamental commitment” to creating the safest environment on job sites is what drives Turner, he said. Raising fines wouldn’t change that.

Higher fines could be big hits for small and mid-sized construction companies, but they wouldn’t affect the biggest players, said Dan Johnson, vice president of operations for Skanska USA.

“If they raised fines, would that become a motivation?” Johnson said. “I’m thinking ‘no.’ ”

Johnson has called for the entire industry to take a zero-tolerance approach to job-site accidents. Oregon OSHA shouldn’t need to get involved at all, he said.

“Our mission is never to be fined by OSHA,” Johnson said. “To receive an OSHA citation, that is a strike against everything we stand for in safety.”

Johnson said he sees more problems at companies much smaller than Skanska. “It’s the house builders, the small contractors – you can see from the street the goofy things they’re doing.”

For those contractors, a bigger fine might make a difference.

“At the lower level of construction, they’ll get (the job) done and try to survive,” Johnson said. “If being fined is their only motivation (to be safer), maybe that’s enough.”

Attitude Adjustments Needed

2009-08-11T09:33:00.003-05:00

Safe Work Attitude Adjustment Needed

In the article below from the Sun Journal apparently published on December 15, 2007, it reeks from one of the most frequent cause for Incidents that occur on construction sites all over the country: "Safe Work Attitude" concerning excuses for fatal and serious injuries to workers in the work site area.

This article blames who knows whom or what caused a nylon sling to snap without any notation as to the condition of this sling. Was any "red string" showing in the stitching ? Was the sling inspected for frayed ? Was only one sling adequate for the safe handling of the load to keep it stable during the lift?
Were the riggers trained in the proper use of rigging materials and equipment for this particular lift? Was there a Lift Supervisor overseeing the lift operation? Did anyone really care about this particular lift or was it just part of a daily, boring day on the job?

All the above questions contribute to the cited violations "Unsafe hoist operations and failure to safeguard the public during construction.

Also, at the time of this incident (not an accident), it seem as the city had about the same attitude towards safe work sites and the proper use of cranes and rigging as well as proper erection and use of scaffolding and "Struck By" indident where a worker was crushed by equipment.

Another item of what seems "Willful" to me is the lack of safeguards to prevent falling from open sided elevated floors.

"Material Failure" CAN be foreseen if there is a "Donkey" attitude as material failure CAN be detected if proper "Horse Sense" inspection of the rigging equipment and proper safe rigging of the load.

It doesn't seem to be such a "Paramount Importance" factor when these type incidents occur on a jobsite.

I don't know the status of this project at the current time, but hopefully adjustments were made in the attitude of Providing a Safe Place to Work by the company on this project.

Crane drops steel on architect near WTC

Published: Dec 15, 2007 5:00 am

NEW YORK (AP) - A crane dropped seven tons of steel from a skyscraper onto a construction trailer Friday, seriously injuring an architect at the site just across from ground zero.

The builder of a new corporate headquarters for investment banking giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was cited for four violations, including unsafe hoist operations and failure to safeguard the public during construction, after the crane's nylon sling snapped and dropped its load of 25- to 30-foot-long pieces of galvanized steel.

The crane was lifting the metal studs, being used to support shaft walls at the skyscraper's core - to the 13th floor of the 30-story building before the accident, said Richard Kielar, spokesman for the tower's builder, Tishman Construction Corp.

The accident, which left architect Robert Wood hospitalized in stable condition, is one of a string of recent serious construction accidents in the city.

A window washer was killed and his brother critically injured when a scaffold plummeted more than 40 stories off a building a week ago. A worker was killed the same day in the Bronx after heavy equipment pinned him while he was digging a hole to lay connecting pipe to a city water main, officials said.

The city Buildings Department on Friday issued a stop-work order for the crane at the site and cited Tishman Construction Corp. and the contractor leasing the crane, DCM Erectors Inc., for unsafe hoisting operations.

Tishman - the builder of Goldman Sachs - was also issued violations for failing to safeguard the public, failing to provide toe boards that prevent construction workers from accidentally falling off and failing to maintain netting along the sides of the building.

The sling was carrying a 14,000-pound load and is designed to carry 19,000 pounds, the department said.

Kielar said in a statement that a "material failure that ... could not have been foreseen" may have caused the incident.

"Our safety record on this project, in general, is excellent by industry standards," he said. "The on-going safety of the community and of personnel on this site and on all Tishman sites is of paramount importance to us."

The $2 billion tower, just across the street from the signature Freedom Tower being built to replace the World Trade Center, was considered a crucial anchor to the redevelopment of downtown Manhattan after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

After agreeing to become the first major firm to relocate its world headquarters near the site, the bank changed its mind, saying it had security concerns about a tunnel that was to be built at ground zero which would face it.

In 2005, state and city officials agreed to pay Goldman Sachs $1.65 billion in tax-exempt Liberty Bonds and offered millions in other incentives for the firm's commitment to move downtown. Politicians later said they would never offer as lucrative a deal again for companies seeking to move downtown, but that the Goldman Sachs deal was warranted because the company inspired confidence in the area.

The planned 43-story tower is expected to house 9,000 of the company's employees when it opens in 2009.

Work Platform on a Skid Loader

2009-08-04T10:28:00.007-05:00

WORK PLATFORM ON A SKID LOADER

The article below from O H & S (OSHA Healh and Safety) states that OSHA has cited the contractor is being fined $13,300 for the fatal fatality of one of their workers when he fell from a makeshift work platform mounted on a skid steer loader.

The key word here is SKID STEER

LOADER.

This type machine is to be used ONLY for loader type operations using a bucket, back hoe or other types of attachments that NO WORKER SHALL be on it except the machine's operator. The Operator must be anchored while in the seat by use of a seat belt and/or a rigid bar that prevents the engine to run if it is not connected properly.

All portable elevated work platforms must have controls that they may be operated in emergency operations from the platform. Also, the platform must be constructed with fall protection rails with provisions for the worker to anchor to.

Rules for Aerial Work Platforms DO apply to this type operation and is clearly spelled out in the OSHA 1926, Construction Manual. This operation is strictly a Donkey operation and makes no Horse Sense.

Is $13,300 sufficient for a WILLFUL, "get by as cheap as you can" short cut? I don't think so. It is almost a standard operation for OSHA to cut the already insufficient fines that will get the contractors' attention will be chopped down to an insignificant amount after an informal conference.

This fatality is totally uncalled for and the fines should be multiplied several times, not cut to a mere tap on the wrist conference.

Kansas Construction Firm Fined $13,300 Following Fatality

Aug 03, 2009

OSHA has cited Diamond Sawing and Coring LLC of Summerfield, Kan., for alleged violations of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act.

OSHA cited the company following an investigation into a fatal accident in Lincoln, Neb., where a worker fell from an elevated platform that was affixed to a skid steer loader to the concrete below. OSHA inspectors found two alleged serious violations of the OSH Act.

"This accident was preventable. Employers cannot allow employees to be exposed to fall hazards," said Charles Adkins, OSHA's regional administrator in Kansas City, Mo. "It is imperative that employers eliminate hazards and provide a safe work environment to prevent accidents from occurring."

The alleged serious violations stem from a lack of employee training and the employer altering equipment to accommodate personnel lifting without evaluating the equipment's ability to support the alteration. OSHA issues a serious citation when death or serious physical harm is likely to result from a hazard that an employer knew or should have known about.

The violations carry $13,300 in proposed penalties against the company. Diamond Sawing and Coring has 15 business days from receipt of these citations to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA's area director in Omaha or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Will Fines Hold Up After Appeal?

2009-07-18T09:14:00.015-05:00

Will Fines Hold Up After Appeal?

Here comes the Appeal!

Here is the notice that the sub-contractor plans to file an appeal fines to Georgia DOL I'm interested in this incident and if and when a result of the appeal is posted I will update this Blog Entry.

Friday, Jul. 31, 2009

Subcontractor will appeal fines from fatal Robins accident

By Thomas L. Day - tday@macon.com

ASM-Sanders Inc. notified the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration earlier this week that it will appeal the nearly $80,000 in fines levied by the Georgia Department of Labor in connection with a March 5 fatal accident at Robins Air Force Base. Jacky S. Brown, an ASM-Sanders subcontractor, died when a water pipe exploded while he was working on a construction project on the base.

The company was notified of OHSA’s decision July 16. It had 15 days to appeal the fines before the judgment became final.

Phone calls Thursday to ASM-Sanders regarding the accident were not returned.

The company is accused of allowing employees to work in a nearly six-foot deep trench without any reinforcement to keep the ditch from caving in, as well as three other minor safety violations. The citation that noted the lack of a ditch reinforcement was labeled a willful violation by OSHA and it alone carried a $63,000 fine.

The appeals process now goes to OHSA’s solicitor’s office, who will then file a formal complaint against the company. ASM-Sanders, if it follows form, will formally respond to the complaint. “Most of the time, the parties are trying to settle,” said G.T. Breezley, spokesman for the OHSA Atlanta-East Area office.

If no settlement is reached, the case will be adjudicated by the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

“About 95 percent of them are settled out of court,” Breezley said.

To contact military writer Thomas L. Day, call 744-4489.

Will Company Officials be penalized for Directives to Safety Inspector?

The article below from The Sun Times by Thomas L. Day indicates a closer to the proper fines for the violations than the usual rates that typically reduce fines after an Informal Appeal by a company guilty of violations related to trenching safety.

There is a worse violation that is noted in this article. That being the instructions of Company Management to the Safety Inspector to KEEP QUIET and/or FALSIFY SAFETY Reports. That is just plain Perjury on the Company's Management's instructions.

Not only are these Management personnel violating Federal Law, this type personnel are a major cause of Donkey and Management attitudes to try to "get around" OSHA regulations to save a penny at the fatal cost of their workers. This company should be prosecuted to the full extent of the Law. There is NO Horse Sense in this type management.

Robins contractor cited for safety violations; fined nearly $80,000

By Thomas L. Day - tday@macon.com

The U.S. Department of Labor cited ASM-Sanders Inc., an Alabama-based contractor that provides construction support for Robins Air Force Base, for worker safety violations after a March accident killed one worker. Jacky S. Brown died March 5 from a severe blow to the head after a chilled water pipe exploded.

According to the Department of Labor, Brown and his co-workers were testing a water pipe by filling it with compressed air, disregarding the manufacturer’s recommendation that the pipe instead be tested with liquids.

The company also was cited for employing workers in a 5-foot-6-inch trench without means of egression and without protection from a possible cave-in.

The latter was cited as a “willful violation” of employee safety and carried with it a $63,000 fine.

In total, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) hit ASM-Sanders with four safety violations and nearly $80,000 in fines.

A spokeswoman from ASM-Sanders refused to comment on the citation.

The company may appeal the fines to OSHA within 15 business days, though the company is ordered to correct the violations by today.

After Brown’s death, a former ASM-Sanders safety inspector told OSHA that he was ordered by his superiors to falsify safety reports. “I was told to keep quiet and that was the way we would handle all accidents,” Mike Hill said in the letter dated May 5, 2009.

Hill claims he was fired the day he faxed his letter to OSHA.

The company also was cited for employing workers in a 5-foot-6-inch trench without means of egression and without protection from a possible cave-in.

The latter was cited as a “willful violation” of employee safety and carried with it a $63,000 fine.

In total, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) hit ASM-Sanders with four safety violations and nearly $80,000 in fines.

A spokeswoman from ASM-Sanders refused to comment on the citation.

The company may appeal the fines to OSHA within 15 business days, though the company is ordered to correct the violations by today.

Hill claims he was fired the day he faxed his letter to OSHA.

More OSHA Needed

2009-07-01T08:27:00.005-05:00

Texans Say, "More OSHA Needed"

The article below from The Statesman.com by Juan Castillo makes good points about the lack of enough OSHA inspectors available to investigate incidents on construction job sites, but surely not enough to make Routine, unannounced work site inspections.

While OSHA officials state that ALL of their inspections are unannounced, that is not wholly true. Incident or complaint calls for inspections are not unannounced, but requested by owners or contractors..

As long as OSHA investigates incidents "after the facts," issues a fairly sizable fine, then has an informal review and cuts the fine amounts down to a slight touch on the wrist, they will never get the attention of the guilty companies. If these sizable fines are upheld OSHA could use fine funds to increase the number of inspectors available. In other words, "Let the guilty parties pay for their shortcomings."

Construction safety crackdown not enough, Austin group says

By Juan Castillo | Tuesday, June 30, 2009, 05:28 PM

An Austin-based workers advocacy group is calling for a permanent increase in the number of federal inspectors who enforce safety standards at construction sites in Texas.

The Workers Defense Project said Monday’s announcement that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will temporarily increase the number of its inspectors in Texas is “a good first step,” but not enough.

A report released this month by the workers group depicted rampant dangerous conditions in Austin’s commercial and residential construction industry. The study, “Building Austin, Building Injustice,” said that OSHA is ill-equipped to investigate safety violations. It also noted that Texas led the nation with 142 construction-related deaths in 2007.

In announcing the Texas enforcement initiative Monday, the Department of Labor said the state had 67 construction-related deaths in 2008; 33 so far this year.

On June 10, three construction workers died in a scaffolding collapse at a high-rise apartment construction project near the University of Texas. OSHA is investigating.

Citing Department of Labor data, “Building Austin, Building Injustice” said OSHA had a total of 77 inspectors in Texas in 2008, when the state had 10.2 million workers. That represented the fourth worst investigators-to-workforce ratio in the country.

A Department of Labor spokeswoman would not say Monday how many investigators will descend on Texas from other states for the construction industry safety enforcement blitz which begins tomorrow and continues through August. OSHA could decide to increase or repeat the initiative after evaluating results.

“We’re glad to see there is going to be more inspections and hopefully this will prevent a lot of needless deaths,” said Mike Cunningham, executive director of the Texas Building and Construction Trades Council of the AFL-CIO. “Workers should be able to put a day’s work and go home safely every day.”

Workers Defense Project director Cristina Tzintzùn also called for OSHA to conduct more unannounced inspections at construction sites, explaining that workers have said employers often know when inspectors are coming.

A Labor Department spokeswoman, however, said all of OSHA’s inspections at construction sites are unannounced.

Cunningham said that in his 38 years in the business he did not recall OSHA inspecting a site unless it was in response to a death, accident or worker-generated complaint.

Unsecured Lifted Load Fatality

2009-06-26T10:21:00.004-05:00

All Lifted Materials MUST Be Secured

The article below from The Observer by Sue Buck notes that a worker was killed by falling roofing materials being lifted by a crane in Ann Arbor.

While Sue's article states that, according to the Police, there was no crime. This may be true as far as the Police are concerned, but in reality, THERE WAS A CRIME COMMITTED.

The laws that were broken pertained to OSHA Regulations. These regulations make statements that all loads lifted must be secured to prevent them from falling. Also, no workers are to be exposed to materials being lifted over their work area. This area should have been cleared of workers within the lift area.

There was absolutely no reason for this incident, not an accident, should have occured. In accordance of the new crane standards, the Operator, Rigger(s) and the Lift Supervisor must be trained and certified in the proper safe methods of making ALL lifts. The apparent lack of this procedure makes no Horse Sense and makes Donkeys out of a situation that should not have happened.

Construction site accident claims life of GC man

By Sue Buck • OBSERVER STAFF WRITER • June 25, 2009

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The service for Gary Winisky Jr., 48, will be at 1 p.m. at R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Home, 31551 Ford. Garden City. Mr. Winisky was struck by roofing material that fell from a crane while he was working at the site of the new C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor. He died in the emergency room at the university's medical center.

According to Diane Brown, the public information officer for the University of Michigan Police Department, the incident occurred at 9:52 a.m. when a large, heavy load of roofing material fell off a crane and landed on the man. He died at 10:38 a.m.

“He was crushed,” Brown said.

Autopsy results are pending, and there has been a determination that no crime occurred. The incident is being handled as an accident by the police. However, the state OSHA investigation will look into whether or not equipment failed, safety precautions were or weren't followed and whether there was any “fault” for the accident. The report could take several few weeks.

Mr. Winisky worked for Schreiber Roofing in Detroit, a subcontractor of Barton Malow. The person answering the phone at Schreiber said that she wasn't at liberty to make any comments, and the manager did not return a call to the Observer.

Mott Children's Hospital, which is under construction, is the “replacement” hospital for the current facility. It's located on East Medical Center Drive in Ann Arbor and south of University Hospital.

There have been no other accidents at that construction site. However, this is the third construction death on campus in less than two years. A masonry worker fell 38 feet from scaffolding and was killed at the site of Michigan's Museum of Art in February 2008. In August 2008, a man fell five stories down an elevator shaft at the business school.

Visitation for Mr. Winisky is 3-9 p.m. today, June 25. He is survived by his wife, Charlotte, daughters Krystal Marie and Tiffany Ann, granddaughter Destanie Jasmin Salas, father Gary Winisky Sr., siblings Michelle Winisky and Reed Chambers and many nieces and a nephew.

sbuck@hometownlife.com | (734) 953-2014

Aerial Lift Incident Takes Another Life

2009-06-20T07:45:00.003-05:00

Aerial Lifts Dangerous

The article below by Kevin O'Neal of the Call Star, addresses the fact that Aerial Work Platforms can be deceivingly dangerous on work sites, especially in rough terrain sites.

How and why did this worker manage to be thrown from the basket of this machine? While these machines can be an excellent means of accessing elevated work locations, the travel movements across rough terrain while the boom is extended can accelerate the motion of the basket if and when the wheels cross a hole or over objects on the ground causing the basked to act like a catapult, thus throwing any occupant in the basket out.

This is the primary cause for injuries and death of workers who are not properly anchored to the anchor points in the basket's framework.

If the worker in this incident was trained in the use of these type machines, the first thing he should have been instructed in should have been how to, where to and why anchoring is critical. Failure to do this just accentuates the use of Donkey Sense.

Another possible cause for this type incident could be found in the type lanyard hooks being used. Some of the very large lanyard hooks similar to ones used by scaffold builders have weak or easy to "roll out" when used in aerial lifts.

Contractors should assure that ALL workers that use this type equipment are properly trained and constant visual observations as to how they are being used.

Convention work stopped until Monday; Labor committee may look at safety concerns

Officials continue to investigate fatal accident; labor committee likely to look at safety issues

By Kevin O'Neal

Posted: June 19, 2009

Work at the Indiana Convention Center construction site Downtown was suspended until Monday as investigators probe a worker's deadly fall from an elevated lift.

"Our hearts go out to the (family of Stanley) Roberts," said John P. Klipsch, director of the Indiana Stadium and Convention Building Authority. "We want to do a good job in investigating the accident."

Investigators have concluded that Roberts' safety harness was not properly attached to the device when it tipped and threw him 50 feet to the ground about 3:20 p.m. Wednesday.

Indiana Department of Labor investigators will try to determine why Roberts' safety gear was not connected. The investigation could take months.

The convention center expansion, on the site of the former RCA Dome, is a $275 million project that will nearly double the facility's size. The expected completion date is late 2010.

Shiel Sexton, the general contractor on the project, has a policy that any worker elevated more than 6 feet must be connected to a harness and safety line to prevent falls, said Sean M. Keefer, deputy commissioner for the Indiana Department of Labor.

The state will look into several aspects of the accident, including the lift's movements when the fall took place.

The lifts, once called cherry pickers, typically have controls on their platforms that let the operator move them while the platform is elevated.

Roberts, 55, worked for Harmon Steel of Indianapolis. He had been trained to operate the lift and had experience in using the device on job sites, Klipsch said.

The Center for Construction Research and Training

reported that an average of 26 construction workers die each year from using aerial lifts.

There were 35 fatal boom lift falls in the U.S. construction industry from 1992 to 1999. Roberts' death renewed concerns about safety regulations for operating boom lifts, tall cranes and other elevated equipment.

Rep. David Niezgodski, D-South Bend, said this accident likely will prompt a further examination from his office of whether changes in state safety regulations are needed.

He said he wants to talk to officials and engineers on the site from the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

"We want to ensure that every precaution is being taken and all of the safety standards are being applied," said Niezgodski, chairman of the Indiana House Labor and Employment Committee.

• Star reporter Vic Ryckaert contributed to this story. Call Star reporter Kevin O'Neal at (317) 444-6304.

Low Fines by OSHA

2009-06-14T15:29:00.003-05:00

GOVERNMENT WATCH

The article below was posted in the Parade Magazine on Sunday, June 14, 2009. This article reflects something that I have advocated quite a number of times regarding the "slap on the wrist" fines after announcing a sizable fine for violations, especially related to fatalities.

The reduction of fines at an informal appeal by the violating organization just does not make Horse Sense. For example these reductions from maybe $65,000 may be reduced to $12,000.

New Efforts To Keep Workers Safe

Nearly 40 years after the Occupational Safety and Health Act was enacted to protect workers, organized labor and some members of Congress say the government's regulations are in need of an overhaul.

According to the Bureau of Labor Stastics, some 6,000 Americans are killed annyally in workplace accidents--more than 15 a day--and millions more are injured. But a study conducted by the AFL-CIO, using date from the Occupaitonal Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), found that the average fine for deadly violations is only $11,300. Ped Seminario, the union's director of safety and health, says that under current law, "fish, horses, and wild burros have stronger protections from harm than workers. That's an outrage, and it needs to change."

OSHA's records show that workplace violations increased 6.4%, to 89,000, from 2003 through 2007. Serious violations were up 12%--to67,000--during that same period.

Rp. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) says penalties are "shockingly low," amounting to a "slap on the wrist for killing or injuring a worker." Even in the most egregious cases, employers rarely face criminal prosecution, she adds.

Woolsey, who chairs the House Subcommittee on workforce protections, has introduced legislation that would greatly increase both civil and criminal penalties for vilations of OSHA rules. The maximum fine for willful and repeated violations, including those causing death, would increase from $70,000 to $250,000. Maximum jail time for willful violations that result in death would go from two years to 20 years.

Scaffolding Collapse

2009-06-12T08:49:00.004-05:00

SCAFFOLDING FAILURE

Project On Hold

The article below from the American Statesman by Juana Summers and Patrick George notes that three workers were killed in a collapse of scaffolding on a multi-story Condominium project in Texas.

Failure to following applicable standards for the proper set up of scaffolding AND the proper use of these scaffolds by workers while on them on commercial and industrial construction projects have been the cause of numerous fatalities over recent months.

The primary failure cause is the lack of training for the scaffold erectors and in the majority of cases, the lack of proper training of the workers that use them. So many times, the workers see a scaffold that has been erected for them to use, climb up to the work space then make minor alterations to the scaffolds to ease access to specific work spots causing a weakening of the system. Or they may fail to use proper care while working from the scaffold system.

After all, there are some unsafe aspects of most any scaffolding system that these workers have to be familiar with and shown the dangers associated with the system.

I urge ALL contractors to take the proper erection, setup, and continued checks of all scaffolding systems by following the OSHA standards and the scaffolding manufacturers instruction for these systems. This is a plain and simple use of Horse Sense as it pertains to this large part of multi-story construction, both in Commercial and Industrial projects.

Condo project put on hold

Three men killed while after falling from side of West Campus tower.

By Juana Summers, Patrick George
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, June 12, 2009

Construction on a high-rise condominium near the University of Texas has been put on hold indefinitely while officials investigate the deaths of three men Wednesday in a scaffolding collapse, the project's developer said.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Austin police are investigating the incident.

Gary Perkins, the developer of the 21 Rio project, called the collapse an "unfortunate accident" and offered condolences to the families of the workers who were killed.

"It's so upsetting because we're getting so close to opening the building. Everything has been clicking," he said. "This unfortunate accident takes our breath away."

The project's Web site says the 21-story condo tower was expected to be open this month.

Perkins said that up to 200 people have worked at the site on some days.

Police have not released the workers' names because their families have not been notified, officials said.

Four construction workers were on the scaffold outside the building at 21st and Rio Grande streets when part of it collapsed for unknown reasons about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, said Harry Evans, a battalion chief with the Fire Department.

Two men in their late 20s fell 11 to 13 stories to the ground, Evans said. They were pronounced dead soon after.

A third man, who was about 40, fell a few stories onto the roof of a seven-story parking garage, Evans said. The man died a few hours later at University Medical Center Brackenridge.

The fourth man did not fall and received only minor injuries, Evans said.

Incident Caused By Human Error!!!!

2009-05-19T19:12:00.006-05:00

HUMAN ERROR CAUSED ACCIDENT?!?!?

The following post from BUSINESS FIRST by John R. Karman III, Staff Writer indicates that the incident at Louisville Arena Construction Site was caused by "HUMAN ERROR!"

My first question about this HUMAN ERROR causing a so called ACCIDENT is: "What Incident that causes injury to a person or property is NOT caused by HUMAN ERROR?"

This assessment DOES NOT MAKE HORSE SENSE. In a round about manner it seems that the three workers that were injured may be the ones that are to blame for the incident. My interpretation of this incident should go back to the engineering company responsible for the re-shoring requirements for elevated concrete slabs until the concrete meets it's full strength to stand unsupported. Also, it would ultimately be the responsibility of the Contractor's management personnel to assure that these requirements are met before the removal of adequate shoring, not the laborers on the job.

Monday, May 18, 2009, 1:23pm EDT | Modified: Monday, May 18, 2009, 5:13pm

Investigation points to human error, blames subcontractor for accident at arena site

Business First of Louisville - by John R. Karman III Staff Writer

An accident last month on the construction site of Louisville’s coming downtown arena is being blamed on “human error” by workers associated with Indianapolis-based subcontractor F.A. Wilhelm Construction Co. Inc.

A section of concrete flooring on the arena’s main concourse collapsed in the April 27 incident, injuring three workers.

Two of the three workers were treated for minor injuries and returned to work the next day, according to officials with Minneapolis-based M.A. Mortenson Co., the construction manager for the arena project. The other worker suffered a puncture wound to his arm and has not yet returned.

Mortenson released findings from its investigation of the accident during this morning’s regular monthly meeting of the Louisville Arena Authority Inc. at the Kentucky International Convention Center.

The company hired Suffern, N.Y.-based Geiger Engineers to conduct the investigation. It determined that the collapse occurred because Wilhelm failed to install more than 20 shoring posts to support the concrete section, which is located on the northernmost edge of the project site, near River Road. Other posts were incorrectly installed.

Wilhelm employees on site also failed to detect the error, according to the investigation.

Accident ‘shouldn’t have happened’

John Wood, a Mortenson principal and senior vice president, called the incident “very serious” and “unacceptable.”

It resulted in the first lost-time accident for Mortenson since 2003.

“It could have been prevented,” Wood said. “It shouldn’t have happened.”

Officials with Wilhelm did not attend today’s arena authority meeting.

Guthrie/Mayes Public Relations has been hired to represent the firm in its dealings with the media.

Dan Hartlage, a principal with the company, said Wilhelm officials don’t usually attend the meetings and were not asked to do so this month.

Hartlage said he was unsure if anyone was fired over last month’s incident.

Wilhelm released a statement later in the day, which said that the “safety of our people is the first priority” for any of the company’s projects.

“We take with the utmost seriousness any issue which may involve safety or quality on our projects. … No accident or injury is acceptable on a Wilhelm project, and Wilhelm deeply regrets that this incident occurred,” the statement said.

Authority review found no unsafe conditions

Separate investigations into the accident have been conducted by the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration and by the arena authority.

The OSHA report is expected by the end of the month.

Findings from the arena authority’s investigation were released at today’s meeting. The review was prompted by a WHAS-TV report that included a Wilhelm employee’s assertions that safety was being comprised and complaints ignored at the arena site, according to arena authority chairman Jim Host.

The $238 million, 22,000-seat arena is being built at Second and Main streets. Its primary tenants will be the University of Louisville’s men’s and women’s basketball teams.

The arena authority asked attorneys with its legal counsel, Frost Brown Todd LLC, to look into the allegations, Host said.

OSHA Fines in 15-year-old's death

2009-05-06T12:01:00.002-05:00

OSHA Fines Contractor in Youth's Death

See the November 16, 2008 Update to the post regarding the death of a 15-year-old on a site in Georgia.

OSHA Tightens Up

2009-04-24T09:02:00.003-05:00

OSHA Beefs Up
More Inspectors - More Enforcement

In the following article from The Las Vegas Sun by Michael Mishak, the Secretary of Labor relates plans to increase accident prevention, inspections and enforcement particularly in the Construction Industry and with the Nevada OSHA.

I have been a proponent of more inspections and more fines to violators to get their attention. I urge the Secretary to expand this enforcement nationwide.

construction safety:

Labor secretary says OSHA to be strengthened

Solis: Hundreds of investigators to be hired to strengthen safety enforcement

Leila Navidi

U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis drinks water after a tour of the kitchens during a tour of the Culinary Training Academy in Las Vegas Thursday, April 23, 2009.

By Michael Mishak

Thu, Apr 23, 2009 (4:48 p.m.)

Labor secretary visit Vegas

Bill introduced to stiffen worker protection laws

Echoing remarks she made earlier this week, U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said Thursday that her department would strengthen the Occupational Safety and Health Administration by adding hundreds of investigators and spending tens of millions of dollars on enforcement activities.

"We’ll have more people out in the field to make inspections, and we’re going to have to be a lot smarter and strategic on how we do that," Solis said. "We are going to look at industries where you have a high incidence of accidents."

She said OSHA would focus on the construction industry in particular.

Last year the Las Vegas Sun detailed how construction workers had died at a rate of one every six weeks on the Strip. The Sun also reported that state OSHA officials reduced fines and withdrew citations after negotiations with employers over findings of responsibility in the deaths.

Solis spoke briefly with reporters Thursday after touring Nevada Partners and the Culinary Training Academy in North Las Vegas. She said made the trip at the request of Sen. Harry Reid.

The labor secretary said federal OSHA was working with Nevada OSHA to review injuries and fatalities on Strip construction projects.

"There shouldn't be any loss of life. Workers should be able to go to work and go home," she said. "We know there has to be more assistance provided, so our department is ready and willing to do that."

Solis noted that $80 million in federal funds had been allocated for enforcement activities through Fiscal 2010. During her tour of Nevada Partners, she told a class of high school students that the Labor Department hoped to hire between 300 and 400 new investigators. That number could climb as high as 1,000 depending on funding, she said. Unclear is how many of those investigators will be assigned to OSHA.

Solis said her department would pay special attention to Nevada.

"We will work closely with Nevada, because, again, the high incidence of fatalities in the construction area," she said. "If we can learn from things here we can share that with other parts of the country that have similar accidents."

Contractor Fined for Nebraska Deaths

2009-04-01T12:14:00.004-05:00

Follow Up on Trench Death Post

The article below is a follow up on an article I posted on September 12, 2008 regarding the death of four construction workers near Verdel, NE titled "Accident Kills Four Construction Workers."

This article was posted by CCH, Aspen Publishers, Technical Answer Group.

As I stated in the September post, it is just plain Donkey Sense for contractors conducting excavation work with not even an obvious attempt in following Horse Sense procedures that are so well spelled out in OSHA regulations. There is just no excuse for the death of one worker much less of 4 workers.

If history fails to repeat itself, after an informal conference with OSHA, the fines will be lowered by about 90% of the $201600 original fine.

SAFETY / OSHA - 04/1/09

OSHA cites John Prouty Construction, Inc., following trench collapse that killed 4 in Verdel, Neb., Sept. 2008

OSHA has cited John Prouty Construction, Inc., of O'Neill, Neb., for alleged violations of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act following an investigation of a trench collapse near Verdel, Nebraska, that killed four workers, on Sept. 12, 2008.

OSHA's investigation of the excavation company's site found three alleged willful and two alleged serious violations of the OSH Act.

"There is no excuse for this accident and these workers did not need to lose their lives. It is appalling to realize there are companies that would allow, or even require, their employees to enter excavations without having cave-in protection," said Charles Adkins, OSHA's regional administrator in Kansas City, Mo. "It is imperative that employers take the necessary steps to eliminate hazards and provide a safe working environment for all of their employees to prevent accidents like this from occurring."

The willful violations stem from the company's failure to instruct employees in recognizing and avoiding unsafe conditions when working in a trench and not having a cave-in protection system. Furthermore, excavated spoils, and other equipment, were not kept two feet from the trench edge. OSHA issues a willful violation when an employer exhibits plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health.

The serious violations stem from the lack of hard hat use by employees where an overhead hazard existed as well as failure to provide safe access into and egress from a trench greater than four feet in depth. OSHA issues a serious citation when death or serious physical harm is likely to result from a hazard that an employer knew or should have known about.

OSHA has proposed $201,600 in penalties against the company. John Prouty Construction has 15 business days from receipt of the citations to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA's area director in Omaha or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

New Crane Regulations

2009-03-21T08:55:00.005-05:00

Federal OSHA or State/Local Crane Regs?

The article below from the Daily News, written by Brian Kates, Daily News Staff Writer, brings out a thing that I have been commenting about for a long time in reference to the pros and cons, and just plain Horse Sense or lack thereof, relating to State and Local governing of Construction Safety across the country.

Since the original OSH Act came into being allowing State and Local writing new Construction Safety regulations in their areas, I have had problems with the fact that these individual regulations may contradict basic OSHA standards.

Different jurisdictions cause confusion in having several different contradicting regulations written by Other Than OSHA regs, not only is confusing to contractors, but can omit many critical practices that can cause unsafe acts by Operators, Riggers and Lift Supervisors trying to operate within the particular areas of work from one jurisdiction to another.

While readers may think the above thoughts are confusing, think about how construction workers feel when trying to figure out what jurisdiction they are working within, especially crane companies that may work in multiple areas and jurisdictions.

Yes, OSHA is a set of BASIC regulations, but when workers have to comply with many differing sets of regulations, Federal and Local, there is the possibly and a high probability of confusing, conflicting jurisdictions of CAUSING unsafe incidents.

As far as Senator Chuck Schumer's blaming the Bush Administration for writing the BADLY NEEDED updating of the crane safety regulations that had not been updated since 1971, this is totally foreign to the facts presented in his statements. How long will it take to get political bickering from the Safety Regulations away from politicins' hands and into the hands of people who are in the field day by day and know what is safe and unsafe on the job? His comments are contrary to safe work practices that he wants to put delays to a good, workable set of standards to keep Construction workers safe on the job. However, I do agree that Federal OSHA should have jurisdiction of the BASIC Safety regs and get every Tom, Dick and Harry group writing their own regs.

Remember that Federal OSHA is a set of BASIC guidelines, I see nothing wrong with State and Local jurisdictions increasing some of the regs pertaining to their work areas. This could cover items such as weather related conditions in the northern areas of the country and with the southern, warmer climates in the southern areas.

Sen. Chuck Schumer rips fed plan for crane safety

BY Brian Kates
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, March 19th 2009, 9:54 PM

A proposed federal regulation to bar the city from shutting down dangerous cranes would "effectively gut" construction safety in the city, Sen. Chuck Schumer said Thursday.

Schumer demanded Occupational Safety and Health Administration chief Hilda Solis put an "immediate hold" on the plan.

The regulation would shift oversight of crane installation and approval to OSHA and take away the city Buildings Department's power to issue stop-work orders for unsafe cranes.

Since OSHA has no full-time inspectors in the city, the new rules would essentially deregulate the crane industry, critics argue.

Two crane accidents that claimed nine lives in the city last year "should have been a wake-up call for OSHA," Schumer wrote Solis.

He blamed provisions that "tie the hands" of city enforcers on the Bush administration, which crafted the proposal.

"We look forward to working with the new administration to revise the rules to ensure we don't turn back the clock," wrote Schumer (D-N.Y.).

"I commend Sen. Schumer for his support on this critical issue," city Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri said. "This proposed rule would roll back new safety measures that are protecting New Yorkers."

Hearings on the proposal ended in Washington Thursday. OSHA will decide whether to enact the regulation after a 60-day comment period.

bkates@nydailynews.com

Where Was The Fall Protection?

2009-03-18T21:51:00.005-05:00

Fall To Worker's Death

The article below was posted in the Mobile Register on March 18, 2009 by Jillian Kramer, Staff Reporter.

My question concerning this fatality is "Where Was The Fall Protection" to prevent this useless death?

The McDuffie Coal Treminal is a State Run facility as part of the Alabama State Docks. Therefore, readers may note that there is no reference to an OSHA investigation in this incident. Sometimes the governmental safety programs just plain do not make Horse Sense and the safety programs do not measure up to OSHA's.

McDuffie Worker Killed in Accident
Larry D. George dies after fall into hopper leaves him partially buried in pile of coal.

A McDuffie Coal Terminal worker died Tuesday morning after falling into a pile of coal and being partially buried, officials said.

Larry D. George, 53, slipped inside a hopper--an underground coal storage area 100 feet deep--as he was working to repair a piece of equipment at the Alama State Docks facility, according to authorities. Residual coal inside the hopper collapsed, covering George, Alabama Port Authority spokeswoman Judy Adams said.

A rail dump, which pours coal into the storage area, was not in operation at the time, Adams said.

Mobile Fire-Rescue Department spokesman Steve Huffman said that as George lay there and his fellow workers tried to remove the coal from atop his body, he went into cardiac arrest.

By the eime paramedics arrived, the workers had uncovered George, Huffman said. Emergency crews performed CPR then lifted the man from the hopper and into an ambulance.

He was taken to Mobile Infirmary Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, Huffman said.

George had been a millwright for the McDuffie maintenance department since January 2006, Adams said.

James Lyons, the Port Authority's director and chief executive officer, said in a written statement, "We are all shaken by today's tragic accident that claimed the life of a valued employee. Our prayers and condolences are with the George family and our workers."

Lyons ordered work stopped at McDuffie until 7 a.m. today, Adams said as a safety precaution.

The incident, she said, remains under investigation by Port Authority police.

Police Chief Jimmie Flanagan declined to comment Tuesday afternoon.

McDuffie is the largest coal import operation in the U.S. More than 18.5 million tons of coal passed through the terminal in the most recent fiscal year.

Stupid Workers ?!?!?!

2009-02-19T09:30:00.009-06:00

Fire Stupid Workers?

In the following article from Bill Sims Company, they take a look at how to control Stupid Workers who take it upon themselves to perform some of the most Stupid acts of Unsafe, Donkey Way practices that an observer does not have enough imagination to dream up some of these acts.

Bill Sim's partner "Zion Safety Consultants" produce Behavior Change Now, Behavior-Based Recognition Insights, Ideas, and Best Practices a free publication that addresses safety actions on jobsites.

In talking with Bill, I immediately knew that he is concerned about helping to make jobsites a safer place to work and to try to eliminate as many "STUPID, duh, I am in the world and on a jobsite today practicing unsafe acts" type work attitudes.

Bill and Zion seem to be the place to go for a free subscription to Behavior Change Now free newsletters that address unsafe acts and ways to prevent them.

I'm sure that many of you readers have seen the "Stupid Workers" picture in this article.

Please observe the theory that I have used in Safety for many years, and Bill and Zion continue to do, "Use Horse Sense in all your jobsite work practices."

From The Bill Sims Company
February 2009

IN THIS ISSUE:
Can We Fire Our Stupid Workers?
Sims Partner Profile: Zion Consulting

Can We Fire Our Stupid Workers?

By Bill Sims Jr.

We are trying to reduce the stupid accidents that occur because employees are in a hurry, or they don't follow the safety standards."

"Every time we have an accident, I get an e-mail from my president asking if we can fire the injured employee. In their book, it's always the employee's fault."

"I have the dumbest employees in the world! One of my guys reached into a conveyor belt without shutting it down, a deliberate violation of our safety rules! He almost got his arm ripped off. Boy was he dumb!"

These are just a handful of the candid comments that a few safety people have made when I chat with them. The last one occurred in an American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) meeting where the safety manager lamented people who are so "stupid" that they break obvious safety rules.

I told that safety director that his people aren't dumb. And, while the worker with the mangled arm won't make the mistake again of reaching into the conveyor belt, others will make that mistake before long, with possibly even deadly consequences.

"Why do you say that?" he asked me.

To continue reading this article CLICK HERE.

Did you like this article? Please share it with two friends andrequest my free workshop DVD: “Green Beans & Ice Cream: The Recipe for Behavior Change.

BILL SIMS COMPANY PARTNER PROFILE

Zion Safety Consulting

Zion Safety Consulting is a team of dedicated safety consulting professionals whose practice is the structure and implementation of workplace safety, corporate loss control and regulatory compliance. Every member of our staff not only holds highly technical degrees but they have practical “in-field safety” experience. We bring a reality of what works and what does not to every situation.

You can contact Zion President Jack Jackson
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Another Useless Fatality

2009-01-31T15:19:00.003-06:00

Safety Stupidity Blamed on Bush!

The article below from The Ledger in Lakeland, Suzie Schottelkotte reports that a worker was killed when the bucket of a back hoe pinned a big concrete box crushed him.

The VERY apparent cause of this useless death was called, "A Pure Accident" by Auburndale police. The REAL incident could have and probably NOT happened if the machine operator had stayed in the cab, at the controls of the machine. Leaving the controls of ANY construction equipment with the engine running is contrary to ALL Safety Regulations as well as is just plain Donkey Sense to do such a thing.

Also, this situation could have been prevented if a piece of lifting equipment, such as a crane with proper rigging was used.

In the comment below the article, was correct in stating that no one is ever to leave the cab of a piece of equipment, but how in Heaven's name could BUSH have had anything to do with this stupid incident? No Horse Sense is made in this part of his/her comment.

city of auburndale project

Worker at Construction Site Dies

Man is killed when he's pinned by machine's bucket.

By Suzie Schottelkotte
THE LEDGER

Published: Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 8:20 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 8:20 p.m.

AUBURNDALE | A 42-year-old Auburndale construction worker died Thursday at the city's wastewater treatment plant when he was pinned between a concrete wastewater junction box and the bucket of a trackhoe.

Click to enlarge

Mark Ingram was assisting co-workers in preparations to lower the hollow junction box into the ground about 8:30 a.m. when the trackhoe shifted, crushing him against the concrete box.

Ingram, who was working for Indian River Industrial Contractors, died at the scene, said Auburndale police Lt. Thrasey Tucker. "This was purely an accident," he said. "From a law-enforcement perspective, there is no foul play, nothing of a criminal nature."

Tucker said crews were using a trackhoe, which is similar to a backhoe but with tank-like tracks instead of tires, to lower the junction box into the ground. The box was at ground level next to the hole. A co-worker left the cab of the trackhoe to help Ingram, who was hooking cables connecting the junction box to the trackhoe.

"The trackhoe kept moving," Tucker said, "and the bucket pinned (Ingram,) crushing him."

Investigators with the federal Occupation Safety and Health Administration initiated an independent investigation Thursday to see if the company violated any safety standards. Tucker said no city employees were involved in the construction project at the plant at 890 Braddock Road.

The city is doubling the capacity of its wastewater treatment plant from 2 million gallons per day to 4 million gallons.

[ Suzie Schottelkotte can be reached at suzie.schottelkotte@theledger.com or 863-533-9070. ]

This story appeared in print on page B1

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treowe says...
January 30, 2009 9:51:01 am

RE: Link

My deepest sorrow and condolences to his family
it grieves me much to see such as this happen to people when 90% of the time it is preventable,
Auburndale police lt.Thrasey Tucker said This was purely an accident"From a law-enforcement perspective, there is no foul play, nothing of a criminal nature."

with all due respect to lt. Tucker, I'm sure he means well,
(There is no such thing as an accident,) any incident is always caused by someone, negligence,not thinking, distraction, ECT, Lack of training mostly because the George W, Bush adminstration Gutted osha, imsha and all other beneficial programs designed to protect working people in favor of the Induatries making more profit by not having saftey programs to administer,
I know because I was working in heavy industry, We were having saftey meetings daily, Had people assigned to saftey patrols and inspections, They attended saftey classes weekly,
Not long after the 2000 elections we went to 0, On saftey,
In case someone wants to know about lighting strikes and such, That comes under the heading of ACT OF GOD,
An operator should never under any circumstance dismount A machine and leave it running, anything that can happen--- WILL Murphys law. If the current osha finds anything it will suprise me.

OSHA Wants Changes In Crane Operations

2009-01-29T11:03:00.004-06:00

OSHA Recommends Changes

In the article below from Pantograph.com, Mary Ann Ford states that OSHA has recommendations some Horse Sense changes in the Inspection of cranes on ALL worksites.

Far too many crane Incidents occur due to the lack of REQUIRED maintenance and inspection to mobile cranes, particular on Construction projects. OSHA standards incorporate some ASME standards in regard to Mobile and Locomotive Cranes. The incident below notes that "boom hoist" wire ropes, as well as all other wire ropes Must be Inspected at specific periods of time, AND, at least, daily inspections of all parts of the cranes, cables, wire ropes and rigging equipment. Obviously these inspections had not been made. This caused not only the expense of new a new boom as well as other parts of the crane in question, but the failure caused the death of a construction worker within the reach of the crane's boom.

OSHA recommends changes to local business after fatal accident

By Mary Ann Ford
mford@pantagraph.com

NORMAL -- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is recommending Area Erectors Inc. make some changes to avoid repeating an accident that killed one of its workers in July, but OSHA is not leveling a fine. | Read full OSHA report (PDF)

OSHA’s investigation revealed a wire rope on the crane used during construction of the Wildwood Industries logistics center in north Normal on July 23 “failed due to bending fatigue.”

Joshua Dawe, 33, of Topeka was in the basket of an aerial lift at the site when the crane’s boom collapsed onto the basket. Dawe was killed instantly.

OSHA examined several sections of the wire rope. In one section’s wire strands, OSHA found more than six times the number of breaks allowed under agency rules, according to a report obtained by The Pantagraph.

The safety oversight agency recommends replacing wire ropes on a cranes boom, main and auxiliary hoists if there are more than six such breaks.

The report that followed a six-month investigation by OSHA said the crane was inspected by Hills Crane Inspection Service on Feb. 28 but the company “did not include an inspection of the entire length of wire rope as called for in the American Society of Mechanic Engineers, Mobile and Locomotive Cranes.”

Nick Walters, area director of OSHA, said failure to inspect the entire length of the wire rope on hoists “may not identify potential problems which would require the rope to be removed from service and could lead to an accident.”

OSHA recommended Area Erectors ensure annual or periodical inspections of the entire length of the wire ropes used in the hoists.

Barry Salerno, a team leader at OSHA, said Area Erectors was not fined in the accident because there was no evidence that the company knew the wire rope had breaks but simply didn’t replace it.

“They hired the crane inspection service and expected them to do the job as required by OSHA,” said Salerno.

That was part of the consideration in the agency’s findings, he said.

A call to Area Erectors was not immediately returned.

OSHA’s findings can not come into a court of law, said Christopher Doscotch, the Peoria attorney representing Dawe’s family in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed against the project’s general contractors, Johnston Contractors Inc. of Bloomington.

“The report is information for us and incomplete information at that,” said Doscotch. “It didn’t name the manufacturer of the rope or how many of the breaks were related to the stress of the crash.”

However, he said, it did identify another potential party to the lawsuit: Hills Crane Inspection Service.

In court documents filed by attorneys for Johnston Contractors, the company argued that it did not own, operate or maintain the crane or aerial lift.

Crane Investigation

2009-01-29T10:12:00.004-06:00

OSHA Completes Investigation of Crane Incident

In the article below from "Injury Board.com" by Beth Janicek, she reports that it has been deemed that the cause of the collapse of the crane in Houston last year likely was the fact that the Crane Operator was not adequately trained and that the Supervisor, also was not trained sufficiently.

In several of my previous posts and in the new OSHA standard on cranes I have stated that not only should the Operator should be certified in the operation of the particular crane that he/she is operating, but there should be a certified Lift Supervisor and certified Riggers present for any lift a crane performs. Much of this is in the new standards.

It is hard to fathom that anyone working with this crane preparing to work in that site could not see that the boom was getting too high to prevent back flipping. ALL construction workers should be aware of all operations surrounding their work area. This is just plain Horse Sense to be aware of activities in their work area, especially huge cranes' boom being hoisted.

Louisiana Crane Company Fined Over Safety Violations After Four Employee Deaths

January 28, 2009 - 01:46 PM

Category: Workplace Injuries

Tags: crane accident; crane deaths; construction accidents; OSHA; work place injuries;

The U.S. government wants to fine Deep South Crane and Rigging due to a crane accident that killed four employees in Houston, Texas. After an investigation that began July 18, OSHA announced that it has issued citations alleging eight violations, six of which are considered serious. These eight violations carry $71,500 in penalties, and the Louisiana based company has 15 business days to either comply, request a conference with OSHA or contest the citations and penalties.

According to a statement released by OSHA, the crane overhauled when the boom reached an unsafe angle, causing the crane to collapse backward striking workers. Mark Briggs, OSHA’s area director for its Houston South Area Office stated that the crane operator was inadequately trained, and the project superintendent did not ensure that the crane did not reach hazardous conditions. This accident is very unfortunate, because if OSHA’s regulations and industry standards had been followed, this tragedy could have been prevented.

OSHA has since responded to the many highly publicized accidents by implementing a Regional Emphasis Program on Crane Safety Standards. Under this program, construction sites are subject to inspection with regards to:

Being stuck by objects
Electrocution
Crane tip-over
Being caught in or between machinery
Falls

According to Regional Administrator Dean McDaniel, “Past inspection evidence indicates these hazards are the leading causes of accidents where cranes are used in the construction industry. This Regional Emphasis Program (REP) was established as an enforcement initiative for the inspection of cranes used in construction, with the goal of preventing serious and fatal injuries to employees working on and around cranes.” The Regional Emphasis Program applies to construction sites in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and select sites in New Mexico, and require that cranes be inspected prior to each and every use. A complete list of the General Crane Safety requirements (29 C.F.R. 1926.550) can be found here.

Hopefully, these requirements will help restore safety to construction sites, as well as reduce the risk of tragedies, such as this one, from occurring.

Bridge Fatality

2009-01-17T15:01:00.004-06:00

OSHA Fines Company

The following article from CCH Aspen Publishers, Technical Answer Group describes penalties to the max to American Bridge. This seems to be another construction site where a SAFETY PLAN is written but not enforced by the company's personnel on construction sites.

The "Willful" violation, Failure to be Anchored, that was issued is but a small price to pay for the death of a worker. The other violations could place this company on the Out Of Business list! It just does not show any similance to following the rules set out in a company's safety program not to OSHA Standards. It just simply nor a Horse Sense approach to safe working on a construction site.

SAFETY / OSHA - 01/16/09

OSHA cites American Bridge following fatality at Tennessee River bridge construction site

OSHA has cited American Bridge for six safety violations, including a fine of $70,000 for one willful violation in connection with an employee's death.

The employee died after falling approximately 70 feet from a girder at the site of the Highway 62/641 bridge being built over the Tennessee River below Grand Rivers, Ky. The victim was wearing a harness and lanyard but was not secured to an anchorage point.

"This company has a fall protection plan, but management's failure to enforce their own safety and health policy resulted in this totally avoidable fatality," said William Cochran, OSHA's area director in Nashville.

OSHA has cited the company with one willful violation for failing to eliminate employee exposure to fall hazards and failing to ensure that employees properly used personal protective equipment while working above heights of 6 feet. The agency defines a willful violation as one committed with plain indifference to, or intentional disregard for, employee safety and health. The $70,000 fine is the maximum allowed by OSHA statute for a willful violation.

The agency has issued four serious citations to the company for using pulleys that were not guarded on the winch gear, not barricading the swing radius on the cranes, not securing material against accidental displacement, and not using conforming fall protection systems. Each violation carries a $5,000 fine. The company received one other-than-serious citation, with no monetary penalty, for a recordkeeping violation.

OSHA has proposed a total of $90,000 in fines for the combined violations.

The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations to contest them and the proposed penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. The site was inspected by staff from OSHA's Nashville Area Office, 51 Century Blvd., Suite 340; telephone 615-232-3803.

? Elevator or a Materials Lift?

2009-01-10T12:00:00.006-06:00

Was The Worker Riding an Elevator or a Materials Lift?

The article below from WBRZ News by a Staff Reporter, indicates that another FATAL Incident occurred on a Louisiana Construction site.

In the article, it was noted that the worker was riding on "AN ELEVATOR WITH NO DOORS." ALL personnel ELEVATORS must be enclosed and meet OSHA standards and safeguards for PERSONNEL lifts and elevators.

This would indicate that the platform this worker was riding was designed for MATERIALS LIFTING ONLY.

By the worker being able to "lean his head outside of the elevator" this could only mean that it was a Material Lift Only.

From the brief article on this fatality, the contractor did not prevent an incident to happen by keeping workers off the lift.

POLICE AND FIRE NEWS

Construction site accident kills man

Advocate staff report
Published: Jan 9, 2009 - Page: 5B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

Comments (0)

A construction worker was killed in an on-site accident Thursday near LSU’s campus .

The accident happened around 11:15 a.m. on a construction site at 4005 Nicholson Drive, EMS spokesman Mark Olson said.

Robert Wayne Barnett Jr., 21, of Arkansas, was riding on a construction elevator when a co-worker called out to him, said Don Moreau, chief of operations with the coroner’s office.

There were no doors on the elevator, Moreau said. Barnett leaned out of the elevator while it was in motion and struck his head on a metal beam. Moreau said the beam was probably made of iron.

Barnett was transported by EMS to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, where he died.

Barnett was part of a construction crew employed by Buquet-Leblanc Inc., of Baton Rouge. Bill Firesheets, president of the company, said Barnett started working with them in December.

“First and foremost, our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the victim,” Firesheets said in a statement. “We are also taking steps to help our employees attempting to cope with the tragic loss of their co-worker.”

Firesheets also said OSHA officials and the company’s corporate safety officer were investigating the accident.

Worker Killed

2009-01-07T20:58:00.007-06:00

Another Useless Construction Fatality

In the article below posted in The East Hampton Press, by Brenden O'Reilly, a construction worker was digging under a recently, non-reinforced concrete wall that collapsed. Several questions come to mind immediately, such as:
Why was there no reinforcing in the wall? Why was the worker in a position where it was even "possible" the wall could fall on him? Do the contractors have written safety programs that would have prevented accidents like this? Who authorized alterations to the building plans?

There are many, many questions that must be answered and the results taken into consideration that could result in criminal charges. This is one of the most Donkey Sense situations I've heard of in many years of working in the construction industry. Should these contractors be put out of business? Maybe so!!!

Publication: The East Hampton Press

Construction worker killed in job site accident in Southampton Village

By Brendan O'Reilly

Jan 7, 09 11:45 AM

Emergency personnel rush to try and save the man. ALL PHOTOS BY BRENDAN O'REILLY

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A construction worker died in Southampton Village on Monday afternoon when a foundation wall at a work site collapsed, pinning him underneath—and a Southampton Village official said the accident may have been the result of shoddy workmanship and attempts to cut corners on the project.

Facundo Gonzalez, 33, of Farmingville was trapped beneath the fallen concrete wall shortly before 3 p.m. while he was working at a construction site at the southeast corner of North Sea Road and Willow Street. Emergency personnel from Southampton Fire Department, Southampton Village Volunteer Ambulance and the Village Police attempted to resuscitate him after pulling him free.

Mr. Gonzalez was then taken by ambulance to Southampton Hospital to meet a Medevac helicopter that would have transported him to Stony Brook University Medical Center. But the helicopter was called off when he could not be revived and was pronounced dead on the way.

According to Village Police, emergency dispatchers received a 911 call at 2:58 p.m. from another construction worker, who reported that a concrete wall had collapsed, and Mr. Gonzalez was trapped beneath it.

Jon Foster, senior building inspector for Southampton Village, said that the victim had been digging under the wall before the collapse to install footings, structural supports that should have been in place before the concrete wall was poured and the forms were removed.

“They didn’t do the job right,” Mr. Foster said. The concrete wall also should have been reinforced with steel, but it was not reinforced at all, he added. “As they dug the hole, the concrete snapped.”

The wall, which was built on sand, was about 19 feet long and 8 feet high and weighed an estimated 7 tons, Mr. Foster said. “With 14,000 pounds coming down on him, he didn’t stand a chance, which is tragic.”

Mr. Foster said the architectural plan for the foundation had also been altered. Where there should have been a window well for emergency escape access from the basement, a stairwell was being installed instead. “The stairway wasn’t put in yet, but the wall was,” he said.

Rescuers dug beneath the concrete wall, and after 10 minutes they were able to extricate Mr. Gonzalez, police said. At that time, they began CPR and defibrillated Mr. Gonzalez’s heart, Detective Sergeant Herman Lamison said Tuesday.

With an automated external defibrillator still attached to his chest and a brace securing his neck, firefighters and police officers—uniforms dirtied with mud—carried Mr. Gonzalez on a stretcher out of the excavated area to an ambulance.

Mr. Gonzalez was shortly thereafter pronounced dead upon arrival at Southampton Hospital.

Village Police Chief William Wilson said that, though the death was apparently an accident, it was reported to the Suffolk County Homicide Squad. The Village Police routinely notify county homicide detectives whenever there is a death by unnatural causes, he explained. Det. Sgt. Lamison said Wednesday morning that the body is at the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s office, and that the official cause of death will be reported in the coming days.

A sign for Bérube & Son Construction, along with an August 12, 2008, building permit issued to Valerie Revere, who is the property owner, according to town records, were posted at the end of the driveway. Calls to Bérube & Son were not immediately returned.

Det. Sgt. Lamison said Mr. Gonzalez did not work for Bérube & Son, but rather for a concrete company, Saldana’s Concrete Corporation. He said Mr. Gonzalez was working for the concrete company for at least a couple weeks before the accident. Police believe Mr. Gonzalez was from Mexico, but his immigration status is unknown, the detective sergeant said.

Chief Wilson noted that the construction site is being investigated by the village Building Department and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency charged with enforcing safety and health legislation.

On Tuesday morning, the perimeter of the construction site had been sealed off with police tape, and a stop-work order was posted. Signed by Village Building Inspector Christopher Talbot, the stop work order indicated two violations at the site: “You have failed to comply with the provisions of the New York State building code,” and “A dangerous and unsafe condition exists.”

Behind the police tape, Village Police detectives and OSHA investigators inspected the site.

F U I

2009-01-07T20:22:00.016-06:00

You Have heard of DUI...Driving Under Influence
This is FUI...Farming Under Influence

I received these photos as an e-mail and thought that I'd take a light moment to show the comedic side of what could have been some serious injury events.

Farm Safety relating to farm equipment is one of the top causes of injuries, not only to adults, but to children and youth working in and around farm equipment.

Enjoy the dumb luck, donkey sense incidents shown in these photos.

New Crane Goes Down

2008-12-28T15:50:00.018-06:00

Don't Dump Your New Crane

Note: I received this post as an email. I do not know where this event occurred. But, it does demonstrate the need for assuring that a crane MUST be placed on a firm foundation before beginning any lifting.)

Nine-Day-Old, 250 T Liebherr Crane (never used before) $4 Million Price tag.

Failure of back propping beneath the 200mm thick concrete deck.
Crane support outrigger punches through slab causing crane to lose balance and collapse across the site and onto adjoining property.
Crane balanced in the air for approximately 1 hour before the entire rig and boom collapse completely across site and rig falls through to the basement level.

Amazing that no-one was seriously injured or killed.

OSHA Fines Cintas

2008-12-20T10:29:00.003-06:00

Cintas Fined

The article below appeared in the (Mobile) Press Register on Saturday, December 20, 2008. It was written by Sean Reilly from their Washington Bureau.

On several of my previous posts, I have complained that the fines by OSHA have been much too lax. In comparison of those minimal posts with the fines to Cintas, it seems that the pendulum has swung to the opposite direction. This is not to say that the fines are excess to Cintas as compared to others, but I mean to say that the others should have been more in line with these.

It just does not make Horse Sense for one company in the Construction Industry to receive mere pats-on-the-back while a General Industry company is fined more severely. After all, I guess that one side of the fence is governed one way and the other side is governed differently!

Cintas Whacked With a Large Fine
Problems cited at industrial laundries in Mobile, other plants.
By Sean Reilly
Washington Bureau

Washington--Cintas Corp., the nation's largest uniform supplier, will pay almost $2.8 million to settle alleged health and safety violations at its industrial laundries in Mobile and five other locations around the country, including a Tulsa facility where a man died last year after being trapped in a 330--degree industrial dryer.

The agreement also requires that the Cincinnati-based company hire new safety and health coordinators, including one at its Mobile plant, and install new safeguards in its washing and drying operations over the next two years. It must take immediate, interim steps to protect employees in the wash areas, according to the settlement announced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

In return, federal labor regulators downgraded citations accusing the company of "willful" health and safety violations and took 10 percent off the amount of the fines originally proposed. Cintas did not admit to any wrongdoing.

In a statement, Acting Assistant Labor Secretary Thomas Stohler said the agreement is binding on the company and "will help create a more safety-conscious corporate culture." Cintas spokeswoman Pam Lowe called the plan "one of the most comprehensive, forward-looking safety programs designed for our industry." Before the settlement, the company had expanded training and taken other steps to improve safety, according to a release.

But while the fine is relatively large by OSHA standards, it amounts to 1 percent of Cintas' annual profits, said Eric Frumin, health and safety director for Unite Here, a New Your based union that represents laundry and garment workers. The settlement also sets no schedule for OSHA inspections to ensure compliance, Frumin said.

"If I were Cintas, I would not worry about OSHA inspectors showing up because of this agreement," he said.

In April, Cintas' safety record was probed in a congressional hearing that focused on the March 2007 death of the Tulsa employee, Eleazor Torres Gomez. Later that year OSHA proposed $196,000 in fines for the Mobile plant, citing 15 safety violations including an unguarded hole in the floor, as well as repeated failures to protect employees from electrical shock and implement measures to keep machines from starting accidentally.

The Mobile plant has about 120 employees; under the settlement, it is one of three Cintas facilities that must hire a full-time safety and health coordinator. The other two are in Tulsa and Columbus, Ohio.

plant in the wake of the agreement. Kurt It is unclear whether Mobile's OSHA office plans added oversight of the CintasPetermeyer, the office's newly named area director, referred questions Friday to an agency spokesman in Atlanta, who declined to comment.

The settlement terms will apply to other Cintas facilities in states where OSHA has direct oversight, but not to 41 Cintas plants in the 15 states that run their own health and sadfety programs under OSHA's authorization, Frumin said.

Vegas Newspaper Editorial

2008-12-17T09:02:00.004-06:00

Las Vegas Sun Editorial

The Editorial from the Las Vegas Sun really makes Horse Sense in urging officials to work more closely to assure that the jobsites in the Vegas area are safe places to work.

What is the payoff for preventing one incident that stops any worker from being killed or maimed? What is the value of keeping all workers safe on the job?

A simple Horse Sense approach to a good safety program that is conformed to prevent the workers on any jobsite from unsafe acts is worth untold monetary costs from loss of income to the workers and their families, the cost of workers comp for medical expenses, the higher cost of insurance to the contractors and the loss of good, producing craftspersons on the site.

I have advocated in previous posts that I oppose individual state and city safety programs that substitute for Federal OSHA. There are just plain too many versions of too many safe work approaches from one of these programs to the basic OSHA nationwide standards. It is well known that many construction workers move from state to state to perform construction work. Variying safety procedures from state to state, city to city, et al are confusing and dangerous to workers if consistant regulations are issued.

I commend the Sun Times for this Editorial and hope and trust that, not only the safe work practices in the Las Vegas area, but across the nation will be closely followed during the 2009 year.

Improving safety

Officials should press in the next year to make changes to help protect workers

Tue, Dec 16, 2008 (2:07 a.m.)

In the wake of six construction deaths at the massive CityCenter project on the Las Vegas Strip, state and federal investigators found 109 safety violations, including 42 that could have resulted in serious injury.

That number is high given that the inspections came after the high-profile accidents and a worker protest about safety on the job.

For example, a Las Vegas Sun analysis of the investigators’ reports found there were 20 violations of standards designed to keep workers from falling. That is troubling considering falls killed two workers at CityCenter and two workers at the neighboring Cosmopolitan, which is being built by the same general contractor, Perini Building Co.

Perini has said it is doing all it can to make the workplace safe and blames the deaths on workers’ mistakes. However, the government investigators’ reports paint a picture of a systemic problem on the job site, and a failure of government oversight.

As we have said before, Congress should overhaul the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency created to protect workers. But this isn’t just a federal issue. Nevada has its own agency, a miniature version of OSHA, that regulates safety in the state, and like its federal counterpart, it is understaffed and doesn’t have the resources to do the job. State officials had to call in federal OSHA inspectors to conduct the CityCenter review because it didn’t have the resources to do the job.

While Congress moves toward changing federal OSHA, state and local leaders can make a difference in Nevada by working to improve the state agency and its regulations.

On Wednesday state and local government officials are scheduled to meet with union and construction leaders at the Clark County Government Center, following up on a meeting they held in June. They plan to discuss policy changes that could improve worker safety, including whether to allow the practice of round-the-clock construction.

State lawmakers should pay attention to this group’s ideas and make worker safety legislation a priority next year.

Charlotte Worksite Still Dangerous

2008-12-10T10:43:00.004-06:00

More Dangers Exposed on Worksite

The article below from Creative Loafing News from Charlotte by Ryan Pitkin exposes more dangers in the Wachovia tower project in downtown Charlotte.

In a post that I made on November 11th, I stated that I wondered why the public is allowed to pass down the street where materials are lifted up to the ever increasing heights. Apparently everyone who wishes to drive or walk by this site can and has been exposed to falling items onto the street and apparently a side walk cover built of plywood.

It seems as the powers that be that are permitting these conditions that expose the public need to back up and seriously look into the closure of this street and close the street and side walks during lift operations to protect the public.

Apparently, there is a real problem with Safe Work practices on this site that has resulted in at least one fatality and a number of injuries and "near misses." Again, I think it is long past due to use some Horse Sense pertaining to the on the job safety and the safety of the public in the area.

Wachovia tower incident provides window into worksite rules

Published 12.09.08

By Ryan Pitkin

enlarge

Karen Shugart

OSHA: Number of accidents at the Uptown project doesn't appear disproportionate

With one death and at least two other accidents within a month, the Wachovia tower Uptown may appear to have experienced more construction problems than usual. But appearances don't necessarily make it so.

"This is the biggest [Uptown] job site in Charlotte history, that I know about. If you were to combine the NASCAR Hall of Fame with the Epicentre project, it would be about that big. I wouldn't say it's a disproportionate amount so far, but if a couple more accidents were to happen, I might have to," said Robby Jones, local compliance supervisor of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

OSHA, the federal workplace safety regulator, has been called in to investigate the Dec. 2 death of Jonathan Beatty, a 24-year-old construction worker who was struck when a tool fell down an elevator shaft at the site, which is part of an massive mixed-use development.

Beatty's death followed other incidents. On Nov. 10, a crane dropped two steal beams, shattering building windows and sending shards toward pedestrians and vehicles below. And on Nov. 4, a similar incident occurred. That day, Leslie Hoppes and her daughter had just left the Discovery Place and were on their way out of town when glass rained down on her car, breaking the windshield, chipping her sunroof and flattening her tires.

"The only warning we had that something was wrong was that there was already glass in the street," Hoppes said not long afterward. "And we couldn't see that until we were right on top of it."

Hoppes was frustrated by what she felt was a seeming lack of concern for safety. "What worried me was that they didn't stop cars or pedestrians," she said. "They closed down the street long enough to sweep away the glass, and they said they stopped doing whatever it was that made the glass fall.

"I just keep thinking how lucky I am that it was a rainy day, or I probably would have had my sunroof opened," she said.

Perhaps one disturbing aspect of these incidents is that, excepting the Dec. 2 death, if they didn't happen on such busy streets, they would remain private matters. Employers covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 are only required to report incidents to OSHA if someone dies or three or more people are hospitalized. The Nov. 11 steel beam fall is also being investigated by OSHA, yet that might only be due to media attention, Jones said. Sometimes work sites are reluctant to call regulators. "There's a lot of accidents that happen at construction sites in Charlotte that nobody will ever know about," he said.

How can it be ensured that construction companies aren't just allowed to overlook potential safety hazards up until someone gets seriously hurt? Jones said OSHA has a "good relationship" with the Charlotte Fire Department. When the department goes to a construction site for any number of reasons, they know what to look for as unsafe, and they call OSHA and give them a heads up. Jones said, "I try to do as much as I can, but we just wouldn't have the manpower to watch every work site ourselves."

The first sign of trouble at the Wachovia site happened in August when a crane tipped over and landed on the Goodyear Auto Services Center on Stonewall. The subcontractor who employed the man working the crane was issued a citation, Jones said.

When an accident is reported, OHSA workers show up at the site to conduct interviews with witnesses and to make sure everybody was complying with regulatory standards, said Jones. When they feel they have acquired enough information, the investigator compiles a report and decides whether the company running the construction site should be issued a citation. This process usually takes between four and five weeks, said Jones.

Construction companies, such as Batson-Cook, the contractor in charge of the Wachovia site, gain "credit" from OHSA when they go certain periods of time accident free, said Jones. If a company is found to have a clean record after experiencing an accident, there will usually be a ten percent cut on any citation issued, he said. If the company has a history of problems, they pay the maximum amount, according to Jones.

"There's a misconception out there that OHSA is supposed to be there to keep the job safe, but that's not true," said Jones, "It's the construction company's job to ensure the safety of their workers. We are just the safety police. We come through and make sure everybody is complying with regulations, but we've never put people on sites to watch over the work."

Since its 1970 creation, OSHA has been a somewhat controversial agency, alternately criticized by conservatives for being an onerous burden on business and by liberals for insufficient resources and enforcement.

Regardless of whatever happens, Jones said, OSHA doesn't have authority to shut down jobsites.

Horse Sense Comes First

2008-11-24T20:36:00.004-06:00

Horse Sense Use of a Safety Program

The article below from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, written by Mike Hampton, a Safety Expert for the Atlanta Office of Bovis Land Lease.

The content of Mike's article makes total Horse Sense. I am attaching this article to my blog in order to get his message spread out to as many people as possible.

I just want to congratulate Mike on this excellent article.

Construction safety programs need constant support

By MIKE HAMPTON

Monday, November 24, 2008

My heart sank the morning of Nov. 18, when I read the AJC’s article about a 15-year-old boy who died because he wasn’t wearing any safety gear while working on a construction site in Duluth (“Youth died without safety equipment at construction site,” Metro, Nov. 18). I’ve noticed that much of the coverage of the accident focused on the fact that Luis Montoya was too young to work on the construction site and shouldn’t have been there in the first place. But we can’t forget that the unfortunate death of Montoya could have happened to anyone, and will continue to, if something doesn’t change.

Falls are the leading cause of fatal injuries in the construction industry and were responsible for 442 deaths nationwide in 2007, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Each one of those people could have been saved if their construction company had a better safety policy. For that reason, construction companies need to improve their safety practices and adopt meticulous safety programs to prevent tragedies like Montoya’s.

Effective safety programs are easily accessible and offered by numerous associations, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Associated General Contractors, and Associated Builders and Contractors. According to their Web site, ABC members participating in their program have a 70 percent lower fatality rate and 50 percent lower incident rate than the BLS average. Because safety programs have such a dramatic effect on the lives of construction workers, it is imperative that they become the standard for our industry.

A primary way that safety programs reduce construction incidents is by adopting a policy of using safer building practices to eliminate the risk of injury while building. For instance, at Bovis Lend Lease, we don’t allow unsafe A-frame ladders of any kind on our construction sites, and instead use scissor lifts, baker’s scaffolds and podium-style ladders. We have also modified our formwork system and build concrete stairs while building floors so that no one is ever exposed to the kind of fall that killed Montoya.

Equally as important as instituting safer building practices is creating a culture of safety among co-workers. You can have all the rules and regulations in the world, but if your people don’t believe in the program, those efforts won’t matter. Most accidents happen in safe environments because workers choose to do the wrong thing. Taking shortcuts might save a little time, but they can dramatically increase the risk of the task. That’s why you can’t just hand workers a guidebook on the first day and never mention safety again. Supervisors have to be an example and emphasize the importance of safety on the first day of work and every day thereafter. If companies are consistent in their commitment to safety, you can change the way construction workers view those rules and guidelines and actually make people want to wear that hard hat and take the extra time to do a job safely.

Our firm is proof that safety programs can make a difference. Since we adopted our safety program, Incident and Injury Free, in 2002, our experience modification rate, calculated by number of incidents and cost of injuries, dropped from an already low .46 to an even better .34 within two years.

And yet, even though our company has become known for providing a safe construction environment, I worry that the next construction site our subcontractors work on won’t have the same emphasis on safety, and those same workers that were safe on our jobs might get hurt on another. The only roadblock to safety programs is that not enough construction companies are committed to making safety a priority. Having a written program as required by OSHA is not a commitment. Believing in the program and visibly supporting it at all levels of the organization is what is required.

Let’s not wait until someone gets injured or dies on a job site to improve safety policy. All construction companies should learn from Montoya’s death and re-commit to their safety programs.

• Mike Hampton, a construction safety expert, is principal-in-charge for the Atlanta office of Bovis Lend Lease, a project management and construction company.

Why Is A 16-year-old Working at Night

2008-11-16T16:41:00.007-06:00

Note: See the second post on this fatality below.

Note 2: See article below showing OSHA's fines levied against the Contractor in this incident.

Why Was A Teenager Working
On a Demolition Site at Night?

The article below from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution by Andria Simmons is VERY disturbing relating to working anyone without proper Safety Equipment and Safety Training.

Why was a 16-year-old allowed to work on a demolition project on a school night, especially with NO SAFETY EQUIPMENT in use?

It is very obvious that Donkey Sense was in use on the site of a building being remodeled that allowed any workers to be working without proper safety equipment and no safety training having been provided. This seems to be one of the many sites all over this country that hires hispanic workers for small wages with no training so that the companies they work for can make big money and that they care nothing for the safety of their employees.

This is one incident that OSHA should use as an example and completely shut down the company this young man was working for and the owners of the site and fine them both for the maximum possible by law. There is just plain no excuse for these people being in business.

Teen dies in fall at construction site

By Andria Simmons

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Saturday, November 15, 2008

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the deadly fall of a 16-year-old construction worker at Gwinnett Place mall this week.

A Gwinnett County police officer who arrived at the vacant Macy’s building shortly after Luis Montoya fell to his death at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday noticed there was “no safety equipment in site,” and none of the workers was wearing a hard hat. Instead, the hard hats were piled together on the second floor, a police report stated.

Montoya was tossing a step from a demolished escalator from the third floor to ground level when he lost his balance and fell over the ledge. He landed in a 5-foot-deep concrete pit at the bottom of the empty escalator well, said Ray Rawlins, an investigator with the Gwinnett County medical examiner’s office.

The teenager was working in the vacant Macy’s department store, which developer George Thorndyke is converting into a giant Asian ethnic shopping destination.

“He fell approximately 40 feet, so I don’t think a hard hat would have done much for him,” Rawlins said.

The late hours that Montoya was working on a school night are not illegal, said Elizabeth Todd, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Labor. Sixteen-year-olds can work an unlimited number of hours during the week. However, the law does not allow them to work in a “hazardous position,” Todd said.

Todd said it was difficult to say whether Montoya’s job would be considered a hazardous position without knowing his specific duties.

Generally, occupations involving wrecking and demolition are considered hazardous under U.S. labor law.

The accident site has been turned over to OSHA for further investigation. A spokesperson for OSHA’s Atlanta-East area office could not be reached Friday.

Montoya was employed by Demon Demolition, which is based in Suwanee. Neither company president Wayne Johnson nor developer George Thorndyke returned calls Friday.

A public relations company for Gwinnett Place mall issued a brief statement about Montoya’s death.

“We are extremely saddened to learn the news of his passing, and our thoughts are with his family,” the statement said.

Note: This is a followup post from Andria Simmons and Helena Olivero of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to the post above.

This post indicated that the teen that was killed was only 15-years-old. And it points out that no 15-year-old is allowed to work on construction projects in the State of Georgia.

Stepdad: Teen was unprotected

Youth died without safety equipment at construction site

By Andria Simmons, Helena Oliviero

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

A 15-year-old Lawrenceville boy was working without any safety equipment when he fell to his death at a construction site last week, his stepfather said Monday.

Raul Torres was at work with his stepson, Luis Montoya, at the old vacant Macy’s building at Gwinnett Place mall in Duluth when Montoya toppled through an empty escalator shaft and fell about 40 feet, from the third floor to the ground floor. Torres, who was in another area removing scrap metal, said Montoya wasn’t wearing a hard hat or safety harness.

“There was none of that, no protection,” Torres said in Spanish.

“There really should have been a supervisor saying, ‘You have to put this on before you go to work.’ Someone should have been responsible for this. But there was none of that.”

The death has thrown a spotlight on his employer, Demon Demo, and the Suwanee-based company’s hiring and safety practices.

A spokesperson for Demon Demo said the company is conducting an internal investigation and is actively cooperating with OSHA’s investigation.

An initial police report says Montoya was 16. However, authorities have since determined he was only 15.

“A minor in Georgia under state law is not supposed to be working in a construction site,” according to Sam Hall, spokesman for the Georgia Department of Labor.

“[A minor] is someone 15 years of age or under,” Hall said. “Clearly, he should not have been working in a construction site.”

Demon Demo is demolishing the Macy’s department store interior because it will soon be converted into a giant Asian ethnic shopping destination.

The company was fined by OSHA for a safety lapse in 2005, and the company had a repeat violation in 2008. Both violations involved employees not wearing a “body belt” or safety harness to prevent them from falling when using aerial lifts, said G.T. Breezley, director of OSHA’s Atlanta-East area office. Demon Demo was fined $2,500 for the first violation. The second violation drew a $4,000 penalty, which later was reduced to $2,000.

Montoya’s brother, Lucky Montoya, said the family is “very angry” about the accident and believes safety violations played a role.

A police officer who arrived shortly after the accident at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday noted there was “no safety equipment in site.” No one was wearing a hard hat. Instead, the hard hats were piled on the second floor, the police report stated.

“He was a good kid,” said Lucky Montoya. “And he just wanted to go on with his life. He had dreams. He didn’t want any of this to happen.”

The family said Montoya had been expelled from Berkmar High School for disobeying a teacher at a football game. Sloan Roach, spokeswoman for Gwinnett County Public Schools, could not confirm the details of the expulsion. She said the second-year freshman left school after facing a disciplinary panel in August.

Lucky Montoya said his brother was being home schooled and he hoped to return to Berkmar in the spring. Montoya decided to get the construction job to stay busy in the meantime and save up to buy a car, his brother said.

Below is an article from the Gwinnett Daily Post by Heath Hamacher, Staff Writer listing the fines levied by OSHA.

5/6/2009 12:01:00 AM

Email this article • Print this article

Company fined in teen's death

By Heath Hamacher
Staff Writer

ATLANTA - A Suwanee-based demolition company has been fined more than $50,000 following the accident in which an underage worker fell to his death about six months ago.

The penalty against Demon Demo Inc. is the first assessed by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division under the Genetic Information Act of 2008. That act increased the maximum penalty to $50,000 for each child labor violation resulting in death or serious injury of a minor.

Fifteen-year-old Luis Montoya, of Lawrenceville, was working at the Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth last November when he plummeted three stories down an escalator shaft. Georgia law prohibits children under 16 years old from working at construction sites.

The company was fined an additional $3,162 for failing to keep accurate records and allowing Montoya to work in a hazardous occupation. The Labor Department's Mike D'Aquino said the Occupational Safety and Health Administration levied an additional $23,800 fine, the third such safety-related fine OSHA has hit Demon Demo with since 2005.

According to documents sent to the Daily Post by the Department of Labor, Demon Demo was cited in the latest incident for 10 "serious" violations and two other violations, including requiring employees to purchase personal protective equipment that should've been provided to them at no cost.

A police report written after the incident stated that there was no safety equipment in the area where the teen was working.

While some industries allow minors to work at what are considered dangerous work sites, the tasks they may perform are very specific and compliance is closely monitored by state and federal agencies, according to a Labor Department news release.

Demon Demo was also cited for failing to properly compensate 126 workers for overtime hours. As a result, the company will be required to pay nearly $109,000 in back wages.

Two Incidents, Same Site!

2008-11-11T08:09:00.003-06:00

Two Incidents - Same Site - Who Cares?

In the two posts below, one by Rad Berky and the other by Ann Sheridan of WCNC channel 36, each one relates to a VERY DANGEROUS site safety incidents that happened at one site, yet the Safety Director does not indicate that OSHA has been notified! I know that Safety Directors don't want to have an incident that REQUIRES OSHA's participation, but in many cases OSHA can and will assist contractors in preventive safety procedures.

The two articles below, while very similar, indicate that there has not been adequate training of riggers, and or, crane operators and lift supervisors to assure that proper supervision by a Competent Person and proper rigging procedures have been followed.

Also, it seems that the Public is not adequately protected while lift operations that can allow materials to fall onto public streets. This is a VERY SERIOUS situation and should have been taken into consideration prior to any lifts and/or the possibility of materials falling from the structure onto the streets below. This should have been in a JOB SAFETY ANALYSIS PLAN before any lifts were made.

Construction beam falls, hits school bus

07:52 PM EST on Monday, November 10, 2008
By RAD BERKY / NewsChannel 36
E-mail Rad: RBerky@WCNC.com

Video

One beam bounced into the side of a school bus. The l bus was empty except for the driver, who was shaken up but not seriously hurt.

No one was injured as the beams fell 51 floors, breaking some of the newly installed windows in the Wachovia tower being built at the corner of South Tryon Street and Stonewall Street.

"I'm just thinking, 'Oh God, it's coming right at me," said Rick Dufrane who had just made a delivery in the area when the accident happened. "They started spinning around and bouncing and I jumped and when I did that I twisted my hip."

Images from AirStar 36

The 51-story building is being constructed by the Batson-Cook Co. of Atlanta. Project Manager Curt Rigney said the accident is under investigation.

"We will evaluate and see what was or wasn't followed and make any changes as need be," Rigney said.

He said there were strict procedures involved in securing any load lifted by the giant cranes.

This is the second incident at the site in a week. Last Tuesday a panel of glass fell to the street as it was being installed. No one was hurt but glass covered most of a city block.

Rigney said safety is the No. 1 priority on the job for the sake of the public and work crews.

Witness Rick Dufrane is just happy everyone was able to walk away.

"That was a close one. Very close," he said.

Most Recent Comments: 2

watchingyour6 9 hours ago wrote:

I was going through that intersection the other week and saw a lady yelling at a construction worker, pointing to the hood of her car, and then pointing up to the sky.

Guess this is the third incident that we know about at this site.

Report Abuse

Jay Cee 13 hours ago wrote:

I'm a construction worker of 16 years, in my experience most accidents happen by one of the following (or combination):

un-trained personnel
lack of supervision
poor material quality
tight deadlines

Everyone of them is preventable.

Safety concerns after beam falls Uptown

07:45 AM EST on Tuesday, November 11, 2008
By ANN SHERIDAN / NewsChannel 36
E-mail Ann: ASheridan@WCNC.com

Steel beams fall from construction site

Hours after a crane malfunction at the Wachovia Tower construction site sent steel beams and glass falling to the street below, there are still very few answers as to what went wrong.

Regs Overzealous

2008-11-05T10:51:00.003-06:00

Too Much Regulating?

The AP article below written by Amy Westfeldt is a prime example that I have written in previous posts cautioning City, State and Local organizations not to OVER write regulations, particularly in relation to cranes.

I have cautioned that Basic Guidelines under current and the new proposed new Crane Standards that OSHA has out for comments and will be effective in about a year.

If every City, State and Local organizations continue to write uninforcable regulations it will become impossible for contractors to be able to complete high rise constructon projects, particularly in large cities like New York. Also, with so many possible sets of regulations, contractors will have to hire all sorts of legal personnel to assure that they meet regulations of every different location that the contractors work in.

This type of over regulation just does not make Horse Sense, it more resembles operating the Donkey way. Therefore, I urge these different organizations to go back, re-read the basic OSHA guidelines that have been in effect since 1971, compare them to the PROPOSED new OSHA Standards that are available on-line, which refer them to Manufacturers' guidelines and adopt these OSHA Standards to their inforcement teams.

PLEASE: USE SOME HORSE SENSE IN WRITING REGULATIONS FOR ERECTING CRANES AND STRUCTURES AND ENFORCE THEM WITH A HORSE SENSE APPROACH.

Construction industry: NYC regulations overzealous

By AMY WESTFELDT – 17 hours ago

NEW YORK (AP) — It takes a lot of paper to raise a crane in New York City these days.

On top of maintenance records and operator certification tests, engineers have to sign off before cranes are raised or dismantled. The city also requires documents that prove a safety meeting was held before work begins.

It may seem like a lot to ask for, but New York is seeking to become a national example after two deadly crane collapses in Manhattan killed nine people this year.

This year's spate of deadly accidents in New York and other U.S. cities, including Houston, Miami and Las Vegas, triggered the federal government in September to propose updated crane regulations for the first time in 40 years.

But New York has introduced more stringent rules governing constructions in addition to those required by the federal government, including laws that require training for tower crane workers, limit the use of slings that hold loads, and overhaul licensing requirements for mobile crane operators.

"We have worked closely with industry officials to develop checks and balances that are making construction sites safer than ever before," city Department of Buildings spokesman Kate Lindquist said. "There are thousands of construction sites in New York City that are managed without incident every day, and there is no reason why developers cannot build safely to avoid any preventable delays."

But the city's construction industry says the rules are difficult to follow, hard to enforce and often cause costly delays. Contractors say sites are often shut down for days or weeks for minor violations, like a missing piece of paperwork, and stopping work at a high-profile site can cost more $100,000 a day.

"In some respects, it's already overkill," said Louis Coletti, president of New York's Building Trades Employers Association. "You've got new rules and regulations coming out every day."

In midtown Manhattan, where a crane crashed into a town house on March 15 and killed seven people, a crane still hasn't returned to the high-rise development site. A crane at the site of a May 30 collapse that killed two workers was not re-erected until September.

Work stopped at both sites for months, and the latter site was ordered to stop again a week ago because of a missing permit.

Coletti said contractors have received orders from multiple inspectors with conflicting interpretations of building codes, and finding an inspector to lift an order can be as challenging as fixing the violation.

Contractors are most up in arms over a requirement for engineers or manufacturers to certify plans to raise tower cranes. They say professionals would be unlikely to approve plans for work they can't supervise.

Alfred G. Gerosa, executive director of the Cement League, whose members often contract out crane work, said in September that the rule could "shut down the entire tower crane industry in the city."

Frank Bardonaro, president of a suburban Philadelphia crane rental company and head of the Specialized Carriers & Rigging Association's crane safety task force, called New York's rules "unenforceable."

"Are you going to test every bolt, nut, bracing?" he asked.

The city maintains the regulations are standard across the construction industry and are necessary to ensure safety.

More Training Needed in Lift Operations

2008-11-04T07:18:00.004-06:00

Training Lacking for Lift Operations

The article below from the Argus Leader, written by Steve Young is a prime example of the need for training in lift operations, especially for Trained and Certified Lift Supervision, Trained and Certified Riggers and Trained and Certified Crane Operators.

The statement that the operator was not at fault and that South Dakota does not require Crane Operators to be Certified. This Training and Certifications WILL be required upon the final issue of the new OSHA Crane Standards in a little over a year.

Site of crane accident inspected

Victim a father of four from Doon, Iowa

Steve Young • syoung@argusleader.com • October 22, 2008

A compliance officer with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was in Sioux Falls on Tuesday to investigate a crane accident that killed a 51-year-old welder from Doon, Iowa.

Henry Wayne VandenTop died Monday afternoon at Sanford USD Medical Center after a large boom on a crane struck him and knocked him 25 feet off the wall where he was working. The accident occurred at the site of an elementary school being built near 53rd Street and Tea-Ellis Road, police said.

Minnehaha County coroner Dr. Brad Randall performed the autopsy and said VandenTop "died of blunt chest trauma."

Bruce Beelman, OSHA's area director in Bismarck, N.D., said he had an officer in Sioux Falls investigating the incident. That officer did a thorough walk-around and inspection to ensure the work environment remains safe, Beelman said, and investigated the particulars of the accident as well.

VandenTop worked for Hoogendoorn Construction in Canton. Police said the welder was on top of a wall working while the crane boom operated above him. Some of the supports for the crane began to sink into the ground, and the back end of the crane came off the ground, bringing the boom down to crush VandenTop and knocking him off the wall.

Paul Maassen, a minority owner of Hoogendoorn, said the crane and its supports were resting on layered wooden pads, and some of the supports "sank with the wooden pads; everything went into the ground."

Maassen said he didn't know what caused the supports to sink.

"There's nothing I can really speculate on at this time," he said. "We need to stay with the inspectors. They'll eventually give us how they think it happened."

Maassen did say, however, that he didn't think operator error was the cause.

"We had our inspectors, our safety guys, out to check everything," he said. "They didn't see anything out of the ordinary."

South Dakota does not require crane operators to be certified, said Dawn Dovre, public information officer for the state Department of Labor. It is one of 35 states that do not require such certification.

Beelman said his office has up to six months to complete the investigation, though "I would not want to provide a specific time period or date" for it to be finished. The agency has standards that companies have to meet when operating cranes, including taking appropriate precautions to ensure cranes are not operated on unstable surfaces, Beelman said.

Maassen said he thought the OSHA inspector finished his on-site work Tuesday.

If OSHA determines any serious safety violations were involved, it could cite Hoogendoorn and levy a fine ranging from $375 to $7,000, Beelman said.

In extreme cases, where OSHA determines that a company willfully disregard safety standards, the fine can go as high as $70,000, Beelman added.

This summer, Hoogendoorn was assessed a $1,500 penalty for not having an adequate guardrail system at a construction site in Brookings, Beelman said. That fine was reduced to $750 when the contractor agreed to correct the problem immediately and improve its safety and health programs through training and better monitoring.

VandenTop was married and has four children. Family members declined to comment Tuesday. Maassen said VandenTop had worked for his company for 14 years and was a friend who liked to fish and loved his family.

"Our guys are all close," Maassen said. "They're all friends together. This is hard for all our guys. They know each other really well."

Arrangements are pending with Porter Funeral Home in Rock Valley, Iowa.

Reach reporter Steve Young at 331-2306.

The Kids Get In On the Act

2008-11-03T07:35:00.004-06:00

Kids Want Safe Work Sites, Too!

The article below in The Chief Engineer makes total Horse Sense in that the children of ASSE Members work hard each year producing Safety Poster Ideas for job sites all around the world. This is one of the best things I've seen that promotes Safe Work Practices for Parents, Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles of children who want them to return home at the end of each work day without injuries or fatalities.

I urge anyone who is an ASSE member to urge their children to participate in this great program.

7th Annual Safety-on-the-Job Poster Contest

Through the annual American Society of Safety Engineers’ (ASSE) kids’ “Safety-on-the-Job” poster contest, children illustrate what job safety means to them, their families and friends. Each of last year’s five winning posters had a different tag line, but same theme - ‘Construction Cats Wear Hard Hats’ (from 6-year-old Victoria Benigno, Cherry Hill, NJ); ‘Think Safety - The One Person Who Can Prevent Accidents Is You’ (7-year-old Tiffany Jade Heishman, Strasburg, VA); ‘Fortune Strikes Where Safety Thrives’ (10-year-old Immanuel Adriana Rakshana, Kuwait); ‘Safety in Different Languages, But It’s All The Same Thing’ (11-year-old Robin Newman, Madison, AL); and, ‘1 Pair of Safety Glasses - $15, 1 Hard Hat $40, Work Boots $120, Daddy Coming Home - Priceless!’ (13-year-old Meghan Baker of Perth-Andover, New Brunswick).

ASSE is launching the 7th annual kids’ ‘Safety-on-the-Job’ poster contest open to ASSE members’ children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, with a Valentines Day, February 14, 2009, deadline. ASSE members can also sponsor local schools, co-workers’ children and more to enter. The contest is open to children 5-14 with top prizes to be awarded to those in each of the five age groups that best illustrate being safe on the job.

Children in five age groups -- ages 5-6; ages 7-8; ages 9-10; ages 11-12; and ages 13-14 are invited to create and submit posters no larger than 11x14 that best illustrate being safe at work. Winners will be announced the first week of March. Entry forms and contest rules can be found at www.asse.org/newsroom under the ASSE’s 7th Annual Kids’ “Safety-on-the-Job” poster contest link.

New Law at Highway Incidents

2008-11-02T07:19:00.003-06:00

Safety Vests Now Required at Roadside Incidents

The article below from the Daily American, written by Tiffany Wright indicates that a good, Horse Sense rule will become effective on November 24th that will require ANYONE at the scene of a roadside incident MUST wear highly visible, reflective vests. I highly applaud this new rule for the safety of Construction Workers, Fire and Safety personnel and News Media's protection.

Law will require workers to wear safety vests
By TIFFANY WRIGHT
Daily American Staff Writer

Saturday, November 1, 2008 9:27 PM EDT

In a few weeks, people working along federal highways will have to gear up in reflective safety vests when responding to an incident on public roads.

The new federal regulation, required by the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, will go into effect Nov. 24.

The regulation states, “All workers within the right-of-way of a federal-aid highway who are exposed either to traffic or construction equipment within the work area shall wear high-visibility safety apparel.”

This goes for construction workers, firefighters responding to an accident or media covering an incident.

Melissa Melewsky, the media law counsel for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, said the association supports the regulation.

“We agree that this is necessary,” she said. “Ultimately this is for the safety of roadside workers. If media are on the roadside they have the same risks, so it’s only proper to have the same precautions.”

The regulation is important to workers’ safety, as 43,000 fatalities occur on highways each year, said Doug Hecox, a spokesman with the Federal Highway Administration.

“All of these people are working on roads but none are protected by safety gear,” he said. “Sometimes reporters think nothing can happen because they’re only going to be out there one minute, but sometimes that’s all it takes.”

Kris Wyant, Berlin Area Ambulance Association captian, said even though his emergency responders already wear reflective gear it is good others will have to as well.

“I think it’s a good idea because it’s added safety for people out there working on the highway,” he said.

The employees in Berlin will also have to purchase new vests to update their current ones that are no longer in compliance with the regulation.

“Most of our stuff is no longer in compliance with the new regulations,” he said.

Although not complying with the law is not a crime, those not willing to comply may face repercussions.

“As far as newspapers go I can see access becoming an issue if reporters didn’t wear the proper equipment,” Melewsky said.

Financial funding could also be affected.

“Theoretically the state could lose billions of dollars in federal aid,” Hecox said.

Most of the public roads in Pennsylvania are maintained using federal funding, so the state would have to abide by the rule in order to secure funding.

The International Safety Equipment Association maintains a list of manufacturers that produce reflective apparel that is compliant with federal regulations. Visit www.safetyequipment.org to find a manufacturer.

(Tiffany Wright may be contacted at tiffanyw@dailyamerican.com. Comment on the online story at dailyamerican.com.)

Listen to the Expert

2008-10-30T10:33:00.004-05:00

Excellent Source For Trench Safety Info

The article below written by William C. Byrne of the Memphis Commercial Appeal sheds a good light on a source of Safety Information regarding trenching operations. It seems that the owner of Trench Safety and Equipment of Memphis, TN and North Litttle Rock, AR has knowledge that can be obtained from this company that will help make trenching much safer. As it pointed out in the below article, Trenching operations cause about 100 workers each year.

One fatality is Ten too many as the vast majority of these uncalled for deaths is the lack of proper planning, lack of a Competent Person and just plain "not placing brains in gear before placing trencher in motion." I hope readers will attain necessary information that is available either from this company or other sources to stop these useless fatalities.

Use the Horse Sense Approach to all Safety Related Situations.

Trench expert offers safety precautions

It's inevitable that a ditch will collapse, he says, so be prepared

By William C. Bayne (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Thursday, October 30, 2008

All ditches eventually will cave in, an expert on ditch and trench safety said Wednesday.

"The only question is the timing," said David Dow, vice president, secretary and treasurer of Trench Safety and Equipment, which has offices in Memphis and North Little Rock.

Dow's firm rents bracing and blocking equipment to shore-up the walls of ditches and trenches and also provides training for utility companies involved with trenching.

He did not go to the site of the deadly cave-in in Horn Lake's Holly Hills subdivision Tuesday night, but he said the cave-in there was similar to a number of incidents in the Mid-South over the years.

"Trenching is one of the deadliest components of construction work," he said. "At one time, there were as many as 400 deaths attributed to trenches annually.

"In 1990, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) published rules regarding trench safety," he said.

Among the requirements:

Having a competent person on hand at all times when people are working in the trench. The designated person would have authority to stop unsafe acts or to order workers out of the trench at any time.

Removing or blocking and bracing any surface encumbrance -- any item on the ground surface that might fall into the trench or lead to a cave-in.

Classifying the soil type. Some soil types are more likely to give way than others.

All trenches deeper than five feet must have safety equipment in place.

"The safety precautions could be sloping the trench away from the main opening to prevent a cave-in; using a shoring system to hold up the walls of the trench, or what is called a trench shield -- a safety box that would protect the workers even if the walls of the trench collapsed," he said.

Dow, 57, who has been working in the area of trench safety since 1984, said trench construction accidents still cause up to 100 deaths annually.

"Cave-ins are predictable. Every trench ultimately will cave in," he said. "It's just a question of timing."

-- William C. Bayne: (662) 996-1408

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