14 violations at a Miami Beach house where a worker, 22, was killed, OSHA says
An incompetently inspected scaffold and a missing pully pin were among the safety violations leading to the death of a 22-year-old working on the construction of a Miami Beach house, OSHA said in an inspection report.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s workplace safety arm wants Homestead’s Stucco Works, run by president Miguel Jimenez and agent Christopher Jimenez, to pay $74,555 in fines. Stucco Works, which has no other Occupational Safety and Health Administration citations in the last 10 years, has contested the fines.
“Stucco Works’ failure to make employee safety a priority led to the loss of a young worker’s life,” OSHA Area Office Director Condell Eastmond said. “Employers are required to follow the federal standards that are meant to protect workers from the hazards that caused this tragedy.”
Of the violations, 12 of the 14 were classified as “serious,” and two were designated “other-than-serious.” None were classified as :willful.”
A hit to the head
According to OSHA, the tragedy happened around 11 a.m. July 13 during work on a two-story home being built at 1096 N. Venetian Dr.:
“An employee working on a plastering project for a construction company was filling buckets with concrete. The employee needed to take the buckets to the second floor of a building using a scaffold pulley system. The pulley system fell off and the top part hit the employee in the head. The employee died from blunt force trauma...”
The largest proposed fine, $15,625, came for the violation described by OSHA as “on the north (front) side of the house, the scaffold system was overloaded in that the hoist/pulley on the scaffold system was missing a coupling pin, exposing employees to struck-by and/or crushed-by hazards.”
Among the other violations in the Citation and Notification of penalty:
▪ On July 13 on the north side of the house and June 29 on the west side, the scaffold systems were “not inspected by a competent person, exposing employees to fall, struck-by and/or crushed-by hazards.”
▪ OSHA felt that was worth $6,250, the same as “on the north side of the house,the scaffold system lacked base plates, exposing employees to a fall, struck by and/or crushed by hazard.”
▪ “The employer did not implement an accident prevention program for employees involved in stucco work.”
▪ “Each employee on a scaffold was not provided with additional protection from falling hand tools, debris, and other small objects through the installation of toe boards, screens, guardrail systems, or through the erection of debris nets, catch platforms, or canopy structures that contain or deflect the falling objects. “For falling objects too large, heavy or massive to be contained or deflected, the employer did not place and secure such potential falling objects away from the edge of the surface from which they could fall.”
▪ “Each platform on all working levels of scaffolds was not fully planked or decked between the front uprights and the guardrail supports” leaving a fall hazard from 10 to 27 feet depending on the side of the house.
▪ At two spots on the north side of the house, the scaffold system didn’t have a ladder, leaving a fall hazard of 10 feet at one spot and 27 feet at another point.
To file a workplace safety complaint with OSHA go to the website or call 800-321-6742 (OSHA)
