Dive Brief:
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Panama City, FL-based contractor Panama City Framing faces $359,878 in fines after Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors found employees installing truss framing from heights of up to 22 feet without fall protection.
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The company was issued two willful violations for not providing adequate fall protection and for not having a roof access ladder. The company was handed two repeated violations for allowing workers to use nail guns without suitable eye protection and for not making sure they wore head protection.
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The company has previously been cited four times since 2012 for willful, repeat and serious violations related to a lack of eye, head and fall protection. The most recent occurred a year ago in Panama City.
Dive Insight:
This news comes a day after a Philadelphia contractor was fined $105,631 and handed two repeat and seven serious violations related to eye, head and fall protection. Inspections of both companies occurred as part of OSHA’s local (PA) and regional (FL) Emphasis Program for falls in construction, and they represent the administration’s broader crackdown on fall-related violations.
Falls are the leading cause of death in construction-related workplace accidents, accounting for 40% of the 899 deaths in construction in 2014. Electrocutions and struck-by object hazards follow at 8.2% and 8.1%, respectively, highlighting the prevalence of fall-related incidents.
"Panama City Framing's management has been performing residential framing for nearly 20 years and is aware of OSHA's fall protections standards, yet routinely exposes their employees to a primary cause of death in the construction industry," said Brian Sturtecky, OSHA's area director in Jacksonville, in a release.
OSHA has said it hopes that the recent increase in the maximum penalty payout, which raised fines by up to 78% as of Aug. 1, keeps safety top of mind — in addition to making up a 26-year inflation difference since the fee was last raised.