04-Osha Fines Subcontractor
OSHA
fines subcontractor in employee’s death
By Julie R. Smith – Staff Writer
Contractor of
Wando, S.C. has been fined $1,400 for failing to follow
manufacturer’s specifications for equipment on a crane boom
that killed an employee in Summerville in October 2002.
Company X is a
subcontractor on a state Department of Transportation
interchange upgrade project at Highway 17-A and Interstate
26. The company was cited in December 2002 and originally
fined $3,500 for violating safety guidelines by the South
Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation,
Office of Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
On Oct. 5,
John Russell Odom, of Summerville, was sitting in a truck
cab near exit 199 as co-workers used a crane to load chunks
of a dismantled overpass on a flatbed trailer. A piece of
concrete weighing more than 10 tons was dangling from the
crane boom when a cable snapped. The boom crashed on top of
the cab, killing Odom instantly.
Work at the
site was halted while OSHA inspectors investigated the
accident. Employees with the prime contractor, Company X,
Company A and DOT were interviewed.
A 16-page
report issued by OSHA said the wrong size boom and main
hoist lines were installed on the Manitowoc crane involved
in the fatality, and the lines were “kinked and broken.”
The problems
were identified during operators’ inspections as early as
May 2002, but the defective equipment was not removed from
service, the report states.
The boom hoist
cable was weakened by repeated “pinching” which caused it to
fail and the boom to collapse, the report said.
The OSHA
penalty was reduced from $3,500 to $1,400 when Company X
invoked the Employer Penalty Option, which can reduce a fine
by up to 60 percent. “When an employer is cited by OSHA and
they have a prior clean safety record, they can invoke the
EPO. By doing that, they allow OSHA to require them to
actually do more to ensure employees’ safety,” OSHA
spokesman Lesia Kuldeka said.
Company X
officials must submit a stringently upgraded safety plan to
OSHA by Feb, 28, she said.
The $13
million interchange upgrade project started in September
2001 and has a tentative completion date of August or
September 2003.
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