ConDig (25-Aug-22).  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has fined a Dundee, Ohio-based roofing contractor $228,126 for exposing workers to potential deadly fall hazards on an Akron job site.

The agency said that two employees of Benny Troyer Roofing and Trail Roofing LLC were working at heights of up to 20 feet above the ground without adequate fall protection while Troyer was on-site at an Akron home under construction. 

Inspectors also found the employer allowed workers to use ladders improperly and failed to enforce the use of head, face and eye protection. 

The inspection in February identified one repeat safety violation, two willful violations and one serious violation.

OSHA cited Benny Troyer Roofing and Trail Roofing LLC for similar violations in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2021. More than $108,318 in unpaid federal penalties have been referred for debt collection, according to OSHA.

“These concerns are not new for this company. OSHA has explained abatement and safety procedures to Mr. Troyer repeatedly, but he continues to defy federal inspectors and gamble with workers’ lives,” said OSHA area director Howard Eberts. 

“No other cause kills more construction industry workers than falls from elevation. OSHA will hold this employer and others accountable for failing to provide safe working conditions.”

In late 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 351 of the 1,008 construction workers who died on the job were deaths related to falls from elevation.

The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with each of OSHA’s area directors, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Earlier this week, OSHA fined a New York-based roofing and siding contractor $1.3 million after a worker fell to their death — the second in three years. 

OSHA launched a probe into Nanuet-based ALJ Home Improvement Inc. in February after a worker fell from the roof of a three-story residential construction project in Spring Valley. In February 2019, another company employee died in a fall at a Kiamesha Lake work site. 

Last month, OSHA fined a Fort Pierce carpentry contractor $32,113 after 19-year-old worker suffered fatal injuries in 25-foot fall.

The agency cited Union Carpentry LLC – a Fort Pierce carpentry contractor – after a federal workplace safety investigation determined the fatal fall could have been prevented if the employer used required fall protection.