ConDig (10-Jan-19).  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has fined a Missouri-based roofing contractor $56,910 after an employee suffered a fatal fall when a roof truss collapsed.

The agency said that it had cited Franklin County Construction LLC for one repeat violation for failing to ensure anchorage points and five serious safety violations for failing to protect workers from structural collapse and fall hazards.

The employee that died was part of a crew installing prefabricated roof trusses onto a commercial building under construction in Bowling Green, Missouri.

“Falls are the leading cause of death for construction workers but they can be prevented when required safety measures are taken,” said St. Louis OSHA area director Bill McDonald. 

“It is vital that employers develop and implement safety procedures to ensure that employees are properly protected from collapse, and crews are trained in recognizing and evaluating fall and struck-by hazards.”

In November, OSHA fined two Florida-based roofing contractors for exposing employees to fall hazards on a project in St. Augustine. Derek Williams (operating as Elo Restoration Inc) and Travis Slaughter (operating as Florida Roofing Experts Inc) faced the maximum allowable penalty of $129,336 each.

It followed an announcement that it had fined two Florida contractors after a worker suffered crushing injuries at a construction project in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

A 2016 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released in December showed that the rate of fatal injuries in the construction industry increased 6% in 2016 to 991 worker deaths compared with 937 in 2015.

BLS figures showed that falls, struck by objects, electrocutions and caught-in/between accounted for 63.7% of all construction worker deaths in last year. There was a rise in total construction worker deaths for each of the “Fatal Four” in 2016.