Company Fined in Fatal Florida Construction Accident Crane Collapse
OSHA has fined the construction company involved in a Broward County, Florida crane accident that claimed the life of a 43-year-old father of three earlier in the year.
The fatal construction accident occurred June 16 in Pompano Beach, Florida, where Albert Phillips of Coconut Creek was working on a project to shore up a seawall at Lighthouse Point. A crane fell and pinned Mr. Phillips' legs. Mr. Phillips was taken to North Broward Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The crane operator took a leave of absence from the job.
The construction company involved in this deadly crane accident has been fined over $18,000 for safety regulation violations. OSHA -- the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration -- fined Ray Qualmann Marine Construction Inc. for failure to conduct proper safety inspections that may have revealed weak points in the equipment, and for allowing a worker not trained on this type of crane to operate the equipment. The construction company disputed some but not all of OSHA violations levelled against them.
A Fort Lauderdale construction accident lawyer familiar with liability laws and worker safety regulations may be consulted by families in construction accident cases such as this. Sometimes issues surrounding worker training and the responsibility of construction site subcontractors is called into question, when an accident takes the life of someone who left home to do their job, and did not return. Sometimes cases also involve Florida workers' compensation.
Crane operation and construction site safety is a priority area for NIOSH -- the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. While overall work related deaths in the U.S. have declined over the past year (including in the construction industry -- where deaths declined by 20 percent), 5,071 workers in 2008 lost their lives as a result of doing their jobs. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2008, reported Aug. 2009)
Pompano Beach company fined in fatal crane accident
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com Nov. 4, 2009
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