Dive Brief:

• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited J&M Metro General Contracting with one willful violation for the lack of fall protection, along with five serious violations for other hazards, in association with the falling death of 51-year-old worker Vidal Sanchez at a Brooklyn, NY, job site in April. The contractor now faces fines of $84,600.
• On April 1, Sanchez fell from the sixth floor of a building under construction as he as was raking freshly poured concrete near an unprotected edge.
• OSHA found J & M did not provide required fall protection equipment, such as harnesses and lifelines, to Sanchez or other workers and had not trained them on how to minimize fall hazards.

Dive Insight:

Kay Gee, OSHA’s area director for Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, said of the New York contractor, "This employer knew fall protection was required, but did not supply lifesaving equipment that would have prevented this fall."

Fall protection violations are once again at the top of OSHA’s Top 10 job site violations for 2015. Fall protection violations remain a consistent problem for OSHA enforcement and an ongoing threat to safety on job sites across the U.S..  

OSHA has an ongoing Fall Protection Campaign in place to help workers and employers identify and address fall hazards and safeguards.