Safety Violations Expose Scaffolding Workers to Numerous Hazards
A Texas construction firm will be pay heavy fine for their failure to address and remedy repeated safety hazards. Roma Construction, which had been cited and fined in 2009, was cited for six violations related to their use of scaffoldings on a worksite including:
- Failure to fully plank the scaffolding on work levels
- Failure to inspect the scaffolding for defects by a competent person
- Failing to provide a safe means of access and egress
- Failing to provide workers with guardrails or other safety measures to prevent a fall
- Failure to provide adequate training to employees assembling, dismantling, transporting, fixing and inspecting scaffoldings of the dangers inherent in working on these structures.
The construction company had been applying stucco to the exterior of a San Antonio home when OSHA inspectors arrived to inspect the conditions at the worksite. OSHA has been expending extra resources inspecting Texas construction companies in an effort to reduce the number of workplace fatalities.
More construction workers are killed in Texas than in any other state. In July 2009, OSHA launched an initiative in an effort to restore safety to Texas worksites. Among the dangers OSHA has been trying to eliminate are the following:
- Workplace slip and falls
- Electrical hazards
- Struck-by hazards
- Caught-by hazards
While the inspections may help in small part, it is hard to imagine the Texas construction industry making significant changes to the way they do business until they have financial incentive to do so. Although, the firm’s $50,820 fine is significantly steeper than the fines it received two years ago, it is a drop in the bucket for a large operation.
Unfortunately, it is the construction workers and their families who pay the greatest penalty. When they’re not fatal, construction injuries have the ability to permanently disable and disfigure workers. These injuries can impact a worker’s ability to provide for their family and devastate a household. Until, construction firms are held accountable for their conditions with penalties that amount to more than a mere annoyance, the lives of workers will continue to be tragically lost.
Source: ohsonline.com “OSHA Slams Texas Construction Firm for Scaffolding Hazards,” 24 August 2011
