OSHA investigating construction companies tied to fatal Fort Lauderdale crane incident
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Fort Lauderdale crane plummets onto bridge, killing a construction worker
On April 4, part of a crane’s heavy metal framework plunged onto the Southeast Third Avenue bridge in Fort Lauderdale while it was being put together. A construction worker, 27-year-old Jorge De La Torre, was killed and three others were injured.
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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has opened an investigation into the West Palm Beach-based company Kast Construction, plus Phoenix Rigging & Erecting LLC of Mableton, Georgia, and Maxim Crane Works LP of Wilder, Kentucky, after a portion of a crane fell onto the Southeast Third Avenue bridge in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday. A construction worker was killed, and three others were injured.
Prior to Thursday, Kast had been cited with two OSHA violations at other job sites in Florida.
In the past year, Kast has been the subject of three total OSHA inspections, including one in Sarasota in which workers on the 18th floor of a building were subjected to a 129-foot fall hazard without guardrail protections, according to online records. The company was initially penalized $14,063 before the penalty was lowered to $9,844.
In June, Kast was also cited after employees at a Tampa site were “exposed to fall hazards of approximately 8 feet,” according to OSHA’s website. Per the citation, employees were performing work on an elevator when the company removed a guardrail system and did not provide “adequate means of protection.” Kast Construction was given a $15,625 fine.
The company holds the permit to the $87.9 million project site in Fort Lauderdale where the crane appeared to be located Thursday, though it’s unclear if the crane operation was being overseen by Kast or a subcontractor. Kast did not respond to the Miami Herald’s requests for comment Thursday or Friday.
Jorge De La Torre, 27, was killed in Thursday’s partial collapse while working on the project at 333 N. New River Drive, a 43-story apartment building. The collapse injured three others, including one person who was taken to the hospital in critical condition, Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Gregory May said in a press conference Thursday evening.
RELATED: 1 dead, 2 injured as Fort Lauderdale building crane fails, crushes cars on bridge
Kast was also inspected for safety purposes on Nov. 2 during a job at Legacy Hotels and Residences at 930 NE First Ave. in Miami; no details on that inspection were immediately available, but it remains open, according to OSHA’s website.
This is not the first time the company has been associated with a fatality. In 2016, a 27-year-old worker with the company fell to his death at a West Palm Beach job site, the Palm Beach Post reported at the time.
Maxim Crane Works had a clean nose last year with OSHA inspections. But the company received a $17,775 penalty after receiving four violations in May 2022. The details of those citations were not readily available on OSHA’s website.
Prior to that, the company received a $1,820 penalty for three violations. Maxim did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Herald on Friday afternoon.
Phoenix Rigging & Erecting last received an OSHA violation in August 2014 after a piece of metal broke off a sledge hammer and struck an employee in the chest, killing him. The company initially received a $14,000 penalty for two violations, but it was reduced to a $7,000 penalty when one of the violations was dropped. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last year, there were four fatal incidents involving cranes, according to OSHA’s site. In 2023, OSHA released a report that revealed 297 crane-related deaths occurred between 2011 and 2017, with an average of 42 deaths per year over that period.
Miami Herald staff writers Grethel Aguila, David Goodhue and Omar Rodríguez Ortiz contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 5, 2024 at 2:07 PM.
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