Dive Brief:
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An Alabama roofer will be on supervised probation for three years and complete 30 hours of community service after admitting he lied to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration about supplying his five-man crew with fall protection equipment.
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The U.S. Department of Justice charged Marcus Borden with the offense because he bought the equipment after three of the workers were injured on March 18, 2013, yet told OSHA investigators and he obtained it five days earlier.
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One of the workers lost his left arm when he fell from a roof during a severe thunderstorm. Another one fell 30 feet to the ground and broke his wrists, ribs, tail bone and pelvis. A third injured his shoulder when the storm threw him across the roof.
Dive Insight:
The sentence came one year after OSHA approved a $55,000 settlement from Borden for the six safety violations the agency cited after the incident.
OSHA and federal safety regulators have been serving up stiff penalties to contractors whom they accuse of willfully putting construction crews in danger on the job.
Cal/OSHA earlier this month sent the project manager of a California construction company to prison for two years for what it called the “preventable death” of a day laborer who was buried alive on a job site in 2012.
Less than two weeks later, OSHA slapped the two owners of an Illinois construction company with a $1.79 million fine for “willfully exposing” eight workers to asbestos. A roofer involved in the case also faces $147,000 in penalties.
The U.S. Department of Justice is also getting tough with contractors who violate safety regulations: The agency announced in June that it will prosecute the owner of a Philadelphia roofing company that allegedly failed to provide the required fall protection for a man who fell 45 feet to his death from a church roof in 2013.