Two Ohio-based roofing companies were recently found by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to have knowingly disregarded fall protections resulting in a 19-year-old employee’s death at Neville Island, Pennsylvania in June.
The investigation found that Top Choice Roofing Service of Hadley, Ohio and Mast’s Top Choice Roofing Service of Jefferson, Ohio did not use fall protection required by federal law, a Dec. 20 U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) press release said. This included lacking protection “around skylights and on a low-sloped roof” and the use of an aerial lift without safeguards.
“Mast’s Top Choice Roofing and Top Choice Roofing’s failures to install required and well-known fall protection cost a young man his life,” OSHA Area Director Christopher Robinson in Pittsburgh said in the release. “Falls are the leading causes of death and serious injury in the construction industry, and yet both companies chose not to take actions that could have prevented this tragedy.”
OSHA issued three citations to each company, qualifying them for the Severe Violator Program due to the fatality, the release said. The joint employers face $353,868 in penalties.
“The companies have 15 business days from receipt of their citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission,” the release said.
OSHA initiated the investigation after the death of a 19-year-old who fell 30 feet through an exposed skylight at Allegheny Recycled Products in June, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
