A FL roofing company owner is going to prison. One of his workers didn’t survive a job
A Naples roofer will serve time in federal prison for workplace safety violations that ended with one his workers dead.
Rene Barahona, owner of SB Framing Services, will start serving a 30-day sentence on Feb. 26 for “willful violation of an Occupational Safety and Health Act Standard which causes death to an employee.” That death, on Sept. 26, 2015, ended the life of a worker identified by WBBH-Channel 2 as 32-year-old Selvin Velasquez-Nunez.
Barahona was sentenced in Fort Myers federal court.
Velasquez-Nunez and another of Barahona’s five employees were working on a roof at 13524 Monticello Blvd., lot No. 449, in Naples the morning of Sept. 26, 2015.
As described by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA): “An employee was installing 2-foot by 6-foot lumber on the cement wall while working from elevated work platform. The employee fell from tie-beam 19.6 feet to the ground, striking the concrete slab. The employee suffered from serious head trauma and was killed.”
Barahona couldn’t plead ignorance. His admission of facts says he’s got 15 years experience in the industry, some of which as a foreman who had to take an eight-hour OSHA course. He saw his workers toiling without fall protection equipment. Other contractors had warned him “more than once” that his workers hadn’t been wearing fall protection. He saw them that morning toiling without fall protection.
Nor could Barahona say fall protection equipment wasn’t accessible as Velasquez-Nunez fell to his death — “it remained unused in his truck on the day of the incident.”
OSHA also fined SB Framing $39,200 for the Willful fall protection violation and $3,920 for failing to properly train employees who might have to deal with fall hazards. That was settled down from $49,000 and $4,900, respectively.
