Dive Brief:
- Mortenson Construction and Berwald Roofing have agreed to a reduced fine amount of $147,500 with the Minnesota Occupational Safety and Health Administration in relation to a worker death at the $1.1 billion Vikings U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis last year.
- While the stadium was under construction in August 2015, a Berwald employee, 35-year-old Jeramie Gruber, slid down the roof and through a guardrail, falling more than five stories to his death. Another worker sustained serious injuries.
- Prior to the settlement agreement, the original MNOSHA fine, announced in June of this year, totaled nearly $175,000. The settlement will see Mortenson pay $34,300 and Berwald pay $113,200.
Dive Insight:
MNOSHA initially cited Mortenson with one serious violation, but the settlement changed it to a non-serious violation. The agency did not reduce the general contractor's portion of the fine ($34,300) but lowered Berwald's by $25,900 (to $113,200). MNOSHA cited Berwald with one willful and two serious violations in relation to Gruber's death and the other worker's injuries.
After the accident, local news outlets discovered that Berwald had been previously cited for serious violations on other projects. The majority of those citations, according to The Star Tribune, had to do with lack of safety harnesses and guardrails. One of Berwald's citations in the U.S. Bank Stadium incident said the roofer did not provide proper fall protection but did not say whether Berwald employees were wearing safety harnesses at the time of the accident. Prior to that day's events, neither Mortenson nor Berwald had had an accident on any of their job sites in the last 15 years.
Reducing on-the-job fall injuries and increasing compliance with fall protection standards has long been a priority for OSHA, as falls remain at the top of the agency's list of the most frequent type of construction accidents.
Armed with a higher penalty structure (78% increase) that went into effect earlier this year, OSHA has cited and fined several contractors in the six-figure range in the last few months, including a $307,824 fine levied last month against an Ohio-based contractor, A&W Roofing. OSHA cited the company for three willful and two serious safety violations after it determined that A&W did not provide adequate fall protection for employees working at heights of up to 40 feet.