The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has determined that Porter Roofing Contractors failed to ensure the safety of a crew working on the roof at the Pensacola, Florida, airport Oct. 25, which led to the fatal fall of one crew member.
According to a release from the Labor Department, OSHA determined that Porter Roofing didn't ensure that the 13-member crew was using fall protection, as required by federal law, on a skylight at Peter Prince Field Airport in Pensacola, which was being prepped for removal.
As a result, a 59-year-old roofer stepped onto the skylight and it collapsed, causing the worker to fall 25 feet to the concrete floor below. The injured roofer died four days later.
“Porter Roofing Contractors made a fateful decision to overlook federal fall protection standards and it cost a worker their life,” OSHA area director Jose Gonzalez in Mobile, Alabama, said in the release. “Falls are a leading cause of serious injuries and death in the construction industry. There simply is no excuse for a company not to make sure every worker is equipped and trained properly.”
OSHA also found that the Tennessee-based company failed to regularly inspect job sites, materials and equipment, which exposed workers to electrical and fall hazards. It also failed to report a work-related employee hospitalization to OSHA within 24 hours.
OSHA cited Porter Roofing for four serious violations, with $53,797 in proposed penalties.
Gonzalez emphasized the importance of equipping and training workers properly to prevent falls, which are a leading cause of serious injuries and deaths in the construction industry. In 2021, falls, slips, and trips were the second-most frequent fatal work event in Florida, with 69 fatalities, OSHA reported.
Porter Roofing has 15 business days from receipt of the citations 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 added.
