A New York contractor has been issued nine citations and more than $1 million in penalties after an investigation into an employee’s fatal fall.
A DME Construction Associates employee reportedly fell 18 feet through an exposed skylight Aug. 19, 2021, while working on a project at the town of Oyster Bay municipal building. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration found the Long Island company also exposed workers to falls of up to 22 feet from other unguarded roof openings and roof edges and failed to provide employees with any personal fall protection equipment.
“DME Construction Associates Inc. has continually ignored its legal responsibility to provide a safe workplace and that failure cost a worker their life,” OSHA Regional Administrator Richard Mendelson said in a Feb. 28 release from the New York office. “Ensuring worker safety is not an option. The U.S. Department of Labor will hold employers accountable when they knowingly disregard the law requiring the use of personal protective equipment.”
OSHA also cited DME for four serious violations, including other fall hazards and more violations related to the crane-in-use on the job site.
OSHA has cited DME seven other times since 2011 for fall-related hazards, the release said, with a total of more than $50,000 in unpaid fines.
DME’s job safety plan required the company to provide fall protection for its employees who walk on unprotected surfaces more than six feet above a lower level, OSHA said. The company faces $1,201,031 in proposed fines.
