Articles Posted in Construction Accidents

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration says that it has cited P. Gioioso & Sons Inc., a Hyde Park contracting company, for knowingly exposing workers to electrocution hazards from power lines at Cambridge, Massachusetts work site.

According to a press release published by OSHA, the company exposed its employees to possible electrocution from working close to energized power lines at a work site where required safeguards were not used. On May 9, an inspection by an OSHA official found that employees used a trench rod and a fiberglass pole with a metal end to lift overhead power lines, so that workers could move excavating equipment under the lines and onto the work site.

According to OSHA’s area director, Jeffrey Erskine (who handles cases in Middlesex and Essex counties), “This employer knew the overhead power lines were dangerous, but did not take steps to protect workers or shield them from contact and electrocution. Electricity is swift and deadly. While it is fortunate no one was injured or killed in this case, the hazard of death or disabling burns was real and present.”

Because of this incident, the contracting company faces $70,290 in proposed fines. In 2011, P. Gioioso & Sons Inc., was cited for the same hazard at a Framingham work site. Based on the employer’s knowledge of the hazard, OSHA has cited Gioioso for a willful violation with $69,300 in proposed fines. According to OSHA standards, a willful violation is one committed with intentional, knowing or voluntary disregard for the law’s requirements, or with plain indifference to worker safety and health. Another violation, with a $990 fine, was cited for improper labeling of a trench box.
Continue reading

Steel fabrication plant Boston Bridge & Steel Inc., was cited by the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety Health Organization following a worker’s death late last year.

The 46-year-old man who worked at the steel fabrication plant died when a 6-ton steel bridge arch beam that he was spray painting fell and crushed him. An investigation by OSHA found that Boston Bridge & Steel Inc. exposed its workers to hazardous situations including failing to ensure that the fallen beam and three other similar beams were adequately braced or supported to prevent them from falling while being painted.

“This death should not have happened-and would not have happened-if these beams had been properly secured,” said Brenda Gordon, OSHA’s area director for Boston and southeastern Massachusetts. “An incident such as this, and the incalculable loss of life that results, can be prevented only if employers provide and maintain effective safeguards for their workers.”

The employees, who were cleaning and spray-painting the beams, were also not equipped with adequate respiratory protection against vapors generated during the spray painting, according to a press release by OSHA. In addition, workers who wore half-face respirators had not been evaluated to determine their medical fitness to use respirators and had not been supplied with the correct respirator filters. Investigators also determined that employees had not been informed or trained about the hazards associated with chemicals used during spray painting.

Additional hazards found by OSHA officials included flying debris from an unguarded grinder and the use of a cleaning hose with excess air pressure; flash burns due to missing screens where welding was performed; electric shock and fire hazards from misused electrical cords and missing electrical knockouts; falls from a damaged access ladder; and slips and trips from accumulated ice and snow on an emergency exit route, according to OSHA.
Continue reading

It does not take long to find a group of trade workers dangling from the raw beams of a skyscraper under construction downtown or a crew working in the subterranean depths of a trench in Cambridge. Most citizens of the Commonwealth walk by these sites and remark to themselves how dangerous that looks, and then continue on their way, safely out of the danger facing construction workers every day.

It should come as no surprise that construction trades consistently rank among the most dangerous occupations in the United States, and this year is no exception. Citing the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics data, Forbes ranked construction laborers as the tenth most dangerous profession last year. According to the article, occupational hazards include “heavy machinery, dangerous tools and equipment.” Because of the well-documented risks, building and construction companies have the added responsibility of keeping their workers safe under more hazardous situations than the traditional office environment. A recent investigation by CBS Boston exposed the hard truth that numerous companies are willfully neglecting the safety of their laborers and putting profits ahead of the lives of their workers.
Continue reading

The family of Alejandro Collazo can now begin the healing process after a painful six years mourning the loss of their loved one. Collazo, a husband and father to three children, ages 20, 19 and 13 was an employee of Chicago’s Commonwealth Edison Company, which handles utilities for the Windy City. He was working as a cable splicer in a privately-owned manhole at the time of the accident.

Alejandro Collazo was working in the manhole around 2:00am when an electrical explosion occurred inside the cramped subterranean space in which he was working. The explosion was so powerful that flames were seen climbing as high as 12 feet in the air. According to the National Trial Lawyers, Collazo was attempting to “remove a de-energized cable line that had faulted three days earlier… [when] a cable splice on an adjacent 12,000 volt line arced and exploded.”
Continue reading