Dive Brief:
- A St. Louis, MO, contractor has been found guilty of violating an OSHA fall protection standard, an action which the court said caused the death of an apprentice ironworker in 2014, according to The Kansas City Star. The company faces a maximum fine of $500,000.
- Prosecutors said Fastrack Erectors employee Eric Roach, 22, fell more than 30 feet to his death while attaching sheet metal to a warehouse roof because the contractor did not provide adequate fall protection equipment for employees. Fastrack had requested the trial before a judge in the misdemeanor case.
- In addition to penalties related to the misdemeanor charge, OSHA has proposed a $19,000 fine for the general contractor on the project, ARCO, and $511,000 for Fastrack for serious and willful safety violations.
Dive Insight:
Prosecutors around the country are increasingly rejecting the argument that construction site accidents are an unavoidable result of working in such an inherently dangerous business. OSHA fines have historically been the biggest preventative stick in the safety arsenal, but the threat of criminal charges might prove to be an even more effective tool given the recent ramp up in prosecutions.
Earlier this month, California authorities charged a contractor and one of its foremen with violations of the state's labor codes in relation to a 2015 accident in which a worker was crushed and killed by a 40-foot, 4-ton, concrete-encased steel water pipe when it slipped and rolled off a forklift. Contractor Maggiora & Ghilotti and foreman Mark Greving, who both pleaded guilty, face up to $2.5 million in fines. OSHA has also proposed an additional $38,350 against the company.
Also in California this month, prosecutors charged a crane operator with involuntary manslaughter in the death of his son and another worker. According to Cal-OSHA, Mark Powell used an aging crane, which authorities allege was obviously in need of repairs, to lift his son Marcus Powell and Glenn Hodgson 80 feet so that they could work on another crane. Both the younger Powell and Hodgson died when the bucket in which they were standing broke from the crane and fell.
Perhaps the most high-profile prosecution of a contractor because of safety conditions is that of Harco Construction in the death of worker Carlos Moncayo in a New York City excavation collapse. One supervisor for the general contractor was sentenced to community service and probation, but a superintendent for Moncayo's direct employer, Sky Building Materials, was ordered to serve up to three years in prison. Sky itself awaits trial, and Harco Construction, after rejecting the alternative sentence of paying for televised safety ads, must pay a $10,000 fine.