Construction Deaths In Florida - OSHA Increases Inspections & Training

27 Jul 2007

June, 1999 - It is a sad list of tragic deaths. Construction worker Jose Herevia was laying a steel deck atop the two-story Gator Run Elementary School in Weston when he fell to his death in February. In Miami, worker Oscar Trejo was run over by a front-end loader while working on a street-paving job in April. And last month, Tony Edwards, a roof-construction employee working on a two-story condo project in Jensen Beach, fell to his death from a ladder.

All three lives could have been saved if well-recognized safety procedures had been followed.

The three construction-related deaths are among the 46 recorded in Florida so far this year by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. This is a record number of construction-related deaths in Florida.

OSHA recently identified South Florida as an area with a persistently high number of deaths among construction workers, and it is stepping up enforcement at construction sites and safety training within the industry.

No determination on who was at fault in the three recent South Florida deaths has been made by OSHA, but the overall situation has led the agency to target the area for special attention in two regulatory aspects: enforcement and safety training. In the process, more data may become available to determine what other factors are at play in the high number of fatalities.

OSHA concedes a big challenge in the agency's efforts is reaching the small contractors handling jobs that can be as small as a single- family home, but equally as dangerous as the large project. A plan to send out a mass mailing to all the state's contractors was discarded when the agency realized Florida has about 60,000 contractors, and about 88 percent have less than 10 employees.

But dropping in on large contractors in high-profile jobs isn't wasted time. In April, for example, OSHA visited a Fort Lauderdale site where a major contractor is building a 15- to 18-story building, and which was cited for not having fall protection for workers installing the building's glass windows.

"The guys were standing on the edge of a 10-story building without any fall protection," according to OSHA's spokesman. "Any little slip, and he would've fallen 10 stories to the ground."

While the worst didn't happen, the incident shows the type of perilous situations OSHA is trying to prevent. The inspection determined that the general contractor had control over safety protection throughout the project, and indeed had installed fall guards throughout the project. But the workers employed by the glass subcontractor had removed the fall guards to get to the window sites and didn't replace them while installing the windows. Why? Sometimes it amounts to poor habits on the part of the workers.

OSHA ultimately fined the company $25,000 and reviewed its safety program, noticing that while it did have one, it wasn't implementing it effectively. For example, the company's safety foreman would give violation notices to employees who broke safety rules. But that's as far as the program went, and some employees simply accumulated violation notices without suffering consequences when their habits didn't change.

The contractor, who didn't have any previous violations, paid the fine and has since been cooperative in raising awareness about OSHA's efforts in increasing safety awareness.

Unfortunately, sometimes the message is best received when the worse has already happened.

Robert Stein , president of Stein & Co., a Fort Pierce company that employed the roof worker who last month fell to his death in the Jensen Beach condo job, said he wonders whether the accident could have been prevented by OSHA's safety standards.

Stein declined to give details about the accident while OSHA is still investigating, but the accident hinged on how Edwards, a 39-year-old crew supervisor, was using the ladder, he said. "I don't know how OSHA could have helped in that situation," Stein says.

However, Stein concedes, employees become more careful after a fatal accident happens in their midst. "A lot of employees are reluctant to accept certain things, but after something like that happens, they may become more receptive," he said.

Due to increased construction activity throughout Florida and many other states more serious injuries and deaths are occurring. Often, they could have been prevented by proper safety precautions.

A failure to implement proper safety precautions can be a basis for civil liability under certain circumstances. Verdicts for compensatory and punitive damages for injuries or deaths on construction sites have also raised the awareness of contractors and developers about the need to comply with OSHA and other safety requirements.