ConDig (13-Mar-19). The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has fined two contractors $157,792 after two workers died on a hotel project in Orlando, Florida.
Tragedy struck at the JW Marriott Hotel when workers pouring concrete on the seventh floor fell after the support structure collapsed.
The agency said that PCL Construction Services Inc and Universal Engineering Sciences were cited after ruling the contractors failed to inspect formwork, shoring, working decks, and scaffolds properly prior to construction to ensure that the equipment met the required specified formwork drawings.
OSHA also issued PCL Construction Services a willful citation — for the maximum allowed by law — for failing to design, fabricate, erect, support, and brace the formwork so that it was capable of supporting vertical and lateral loads.
“Using specified drawings and shoring plans may have prevented these fatalities,” said OSHA Tampa area office director Les Grove.
OSHA also issued a hazard alert letter to Puleo’s Concrete Inc and C&C Pumping Services Inc, employers of the two deceased workers, recommending that they develop a workplace policy to follow-up with the general contractor to ensure installation of shoring equipment according to the most recent drawings.
The companies have 15 business days to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
In January, OSHA fined a Fort Myers, Florida-based roofing contractor Ad-Ler Roofing Inc $91,466 after exposing workers to dangerous falls on a residential project in Naples.
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.