Making a Positive Difference
OSHA Saves Lives
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- On June 10, OSHA compliance officers from the El Paso District Office helped avert potential tragedy at two communication towers in the area. Elias Casillas and Jessica Martinez were dispatched to the site of a tower under construction by Taylor Communications. Two employers were exposed to falls of 80 feet due to lack of proper fall protection. After meeting with the employer, both workers were voluntarily removed until a fall protection system was installed. Later that same day, Casillas and Martinez were dispatched to a 100-foot tower in El Paso undergoing routine service and maintenance by two federal agency employees. Both employees had two lanyards apiece, but no fall protection. The employees were asked by the compliance officers to descend from the tower until adequate fall protection could be installed. Mario Solano, Assistant Area Director for the El Paso office provided technical assistance on tower safety to the agency and helped them develop a better safety program for tower maintenance. (Photos of both incidents are below).
Click on any of the thumbnail images for a larger view.
- Should one doubt the wisdom of using fall protection during construction, you might want to ask one fortunate construction worker from Michigan-based National Riggers and Erectors. Last September, while working at the Lambeau Field Renovation project in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the worker slipped from a steal beam - six stories above ground. Thanks to his use of full fall protection, serious injury - or death - was avoided. He was back at work shortly after his rescue. Less than two months later, a second worker slipped from a beam, but also escaped injury because of his fall protection equipment. Like his predecessor, he returned to work the same day. OSHA has a Strategic Partnership agreement with Turner Construction, the Lambeau Field general contractor, which requires 100 percent use of fall protection above six feet. Strict adherence to that requirement has saved two lives in the first year of the project. (Photos of the incident, taken by Turner Construction Safety Director Steve Lafkas, are below).
Click on any of the thumbnail images for a larger view.
- "Get out of that trench," OSHA Inspector Robert Dickinson ordered a worker in an unshored, unsloped, unsafe trench by the side of the road near El Paso, Texas. Good thing El Paso Assistant Area Director Mario Solano had spotted the trench earlier on September 13, 2001 and sent Dickinson and Elias Casillas to check it out. Because 30 seconds after the employee left the trench, the wall near where he had been standing collapsed. Heeding the compliance officer's warning and order to leave the trench kept the worker from experiencing a serious, perhaps life-threatening injury.
- While investigating the death of an aerial lift operator on September 11, 2001, OSHA inspector Rich LeVinus from the Concord, New Hampshire Area Office helped prevent another serious injury or fatality. An aerial lift had rolled off the side of a flat bed truck, catapulting the operator to the ground, resulting in his death. A tow truck operator was preparing to bring the lift upright, and LeVinus realized that doing so could cause the aerial lift to shift and possibly swing into the driver's side of the tow truck. He insisted that the tow truck driver use the passenger side controls to winch up the aerial lift, possibly saving the driver's life when the basket of the aerial lift did indeed strike the driver's side of the tow truck.
- Workers on a deteriorating floor at a building undergoing demolition in Chicago in July also appreciated OSHA's intervention. Following a complaint about the site, Calumet City's Vince Blakemore visited and found workers standing on deteriorating flooring, joists and support beams while demolishing the second level of the building. He told the owner to get workers off the rickety second story and find another method of demolition. The owner responded to Blakemore's concern and complied with OSHA's request immediately, moving the workers to the first level in another section of the building. Thank goodness, because the very next day the building collapsed-right where the workers had been.
- Following OSHA standards prevents tragedies every day. In Houston, on August 8, 2001, two window washers were suspended from the Baker Hughes building when their scaffold broke, leaving them dangling high above the ground. But they were hooked to the proper safety equipment and so they remained aloft until firefighters rescued them-a happy ending. Had they not followed OSHA's required safety procedures and tied off separately from the scaffold, they would likely have plunged to the earth with tragic results.
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