3 federal basic safety inspections at an spot condominium advanced verified a Hudson Valley roofing contractor continuously exposed household roof employees to potentially lethal falls from heights of 18 to 20 ft, according to federal officials.
The US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Overall health Administration (OSHA) discovered 9 willful violations in its inspections of ALJ House Improvement Inc. at Rockland County do the job websites in Suffern through the month of Could, officials said.
The violations bundled staff operating with no expected tumble protection as they removed sheathing and executed other roofing get the job done, and employees lacking protecting headgear and experience and eye shields to stop accidents from flying or falling particles, plywood, nails, and other objects, the office said.
By regulation, residential construction companies generally ought to defend workers in opposition to falls with guardrails, safety nets, or own tumble arrest units when they get the job done 6 feet or a lot more previously mentioned lower amounts, as properly as present personal protecting products to shield from bodily personal injury, OSHA officials mentioned.
ALJ Household Improvement faces $244,581 in proposed penalties next the May inspections, the labor department mentioned.
OSHA experienced cited the corporation for slide-connected dangers at three other worksites in New York and New Jersey among 2019 and 2021, such as one particular in Kiamesha Lake wherever a worker died just after a slide in February 2019.
“ALJ Residence Improvement’s intentional and repeated failure to set up expected drop safeguards proceeds to spot its staff at possibility of deadly or disabling accidents,” said OSHA Area Director Robert Garvey in Tarrytown. “Fall-similar fatalities are preventable if liable businesses system ahead to do the job safely, deliver their workers with suitable and successful training and products, and make positive they use it.”
Falls are the main trigger of death in building function in the US, accounting for 320 fatalities out of 1,008 construction fatalities in 2018, the Bureau of Labor Statistics experiences.
The business has 15 company days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings just before the impartial Occupational Security and Well being Review Commission.
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