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Saturday, August 1, 2009

Construction worker dies in fall from Dallas high-rise

by PegNews wire

On Thursday (July 30), 37-year-old Jose Aguila fell to his death from twenty stories up on a construction site at Harry Hines and Harwood when the scaffolding on which he was standing collapsed.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has launched an inquiry into this specific incident, but this comes after that watchdog organization had already announced an increase in inspections at Texas jobsites in an attempt to curtail the incidence of accidents, injuries, and deaths.

Critics of the current OSHA push say that federal inspectors are inadequately trained, and that their visits are designed more to enforce regulations than to offer instructions which might lead to safer operations.

posted by JM

Staff
Verified User
Anonymous

their visits are designed more to enforce regulations than to offer instructions

Isn't enforcing safety regulations effectively offering instruction?

I'd venture to guess that most of the time it's blatant disregard for simple safety tactics that's the primary issue. Not sure why you need a professor to point out you should be harnessed when high up, wearing protective glasses when cutting or welding things, etc.

In this case the poor guy's harness failed...somehow that's OSHA's fault? How about the manufacturer of the harness, and the fact that his employer provided said inferior harness?

From <a href="http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local-beat/Texas-construction-safety-crackdown-under-fire-from-workers-and-contractors-52223892.html">linked article</a>:

On the other hand, personal injury attorney Mark Werbner, who represents workers, said OSHA is still far too easy on contractors and the penalties for violations are too weak.

“Until OSHA really follows through on their obligations and responsibilities, I’m afraid we’re going to see a lot more deaths and injuries,” Werbner said.

Call me crazy, but shouldn't we be more concerned that the contractors aren't providing adequate safety measures in the first place? Why is everyone so quick to pass the buck here?

Scott Doyle Verified

3 months, 3 weeks ago
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In all reality, there is not near enough blame placed on an actual employee. OSHA cannot fine an employee, only the GC and the employer. That is such BS. The employee plays ignorant, but knows what he or she is doing, the majority of the time. We can train, retrain, and coach, all day long. It is up to the employee to be paying attention, because ultimatley, he is the only person that can look out for him/her. Everbody wants to speculate on the causes, of every accident, when really that dont have a clue about anything. I would be willing to bet that this incident come back to be the actual employees fault, and dosent have anything to do with the equipment. As bad as it sounds, you cant take stupidity out of people, and more times than not, that is the cause of most accidents.

Safetyman Anonymous

3 months, 2 weeks ago
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I would be willing to bet that this incident come back to be the actual employees fault

Too soon! Pretty bold thing to say about a dude who just fell 23 stories to his death, imo.

Article linked above indicates "A scaffold collapsed and the worker’s safety harness somehow failed" - not sure how often you've been on scaffolding 23 stories above the nearest flat surface, but sounds like self-preservation was on the brain as one would expect.

Scott Doyle Verified

3 months, 2 weeks ago
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Agreed, Scott. Especially when Safetyman's registered email address (visible to PegNews staff only) would suggest that he is an employee of the construction company -- or at least has access to their mailserver.

Mike Orren Staff

3 months, 2 weeks ago
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I don't know enough about the specifics of this accident to place blame (ie. did the harness really fail or was it attached improperly? most nylon webbing harnesses have enough tensile strength to hold up an automobile....) but this story reminds me of one my dad told me. He spent some years in Honduras, and related to me that, if they were working on the street or the sidewalk, and there was a huge hole, there would be no barricades or signs or anything, everyone just went around it. He said, "because, the people down there know, the only thing that's going to happen if they fall into that hole, is they are going to get hurt!!" and so they make a special effort to not fall in the hole. In other words, not only is there no OSHA, but there is no "suing people" either. Make of that what you will.... I thought it was interesting :-)

Tracy Yost Verified

3 months, 2 weeks ago
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Yeah, obv don't know enough about the situation to make any kind of call here - simply find it extremely distasteful to presume it was the poor guy's own fault without offering any insight to support the notion.

And with quips like this:

because ultimatley, he is the only person that can look out for him/her.

I sure as hell would be looking out for another job if this dude were in charge of my workplace safety.

Scott Doyle Verified

3 months, 2 weeks ago
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Mike Orren does more to prejudice the topic than does 'Safetyman'. Safetyman's point is spot on. Anyone that has been held responsible for ensuring safety compliance knows it is a most difficult uphill battle that workers find innumerable ways around. I'm not a GC nor do I work for any construction company, now, but I have worked on many an oil drilling platform in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, done a variety of construction jobs, and have been a Firefighter/Paramedic in the metroplex for a generation, now. I am one of the guys that gets to extricate and/or disembark the construction workers from the messes they get themselves into. I also have a fair amount of OSHA training obtained through TEEX from various training locations and on a broad variety of topics. Scaffolds will fall. Its going to happen. People will die in construction regardless of the precautions taken. Its inescapable. That doesn't mean the safety profession is wasting its time. It means that the exaggerated responses when a guy falls off a scaffold in knee-jerk fingerpointing is emotional drivel. In 30 years of dangerous physical work and a career of cleaning up messes, I have found the most common cause of danger in large scale projects is brought about by the individual workers not being mindful of safety requirements that they had formal training to avoid and that the equipment was at hand to comply with.

Safetyman's affiliation with the company at hand has no empirical bearing on whether what he is saying is self-serving. It might actually occur to less cynical observers that someone close to the situation might actually be a MORE informed source, regardless of whether that person freely divulged how he obtained such knowledge.

carrierpigeon Anonymous

3 months, 2 weeks ago
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i dont want to say too much but i hope the company he was working for has proof of their training him. also there were two men on that swing stage, the other man landed on some precast that saved his life.

my prayers go out to the family.

v82 Anonymous

3 months, 2 weeks ago
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Anyone that has been held responsible for ensuring safety compliance knows

Your one job is ensuring a safe work environment. Passing the buck and claiming every man for himself literally means your job shouldn't exist, do not pass Go or collect a paycheck.

But obviously this is OSHA's fault. I mean, if a guy's responsibility is in question...who better to blame than the people trying to be sure he's doing his job?

Scott Doyle Verified

3 months, 2 weeks ago
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OK...I am a safety professional and I teach and truly beleive that all accidents are preventable. Now, sometimes the prevention may not be feasible but nevertheless accidents can be prevented.

Now, SafetyMan says that you can't prevent stupidity, but you can manage it. I have investigated many fatalities and most are initially blamed on the employee but after a proper accident investigation and root cause analysis, usually the employer failed the employee (ie, lack of training, ineffective training, no person pretective equipment, inadequate fall protection).

If it was the employees fault, I would bet that this wasn't his first unsafe act. Sometimes we need to fire unsafe people, instead of attending their funeral.