Worker’s first day on the job leads to severe injury, prompts OSHA investigation at construction site in Bay Harbor Island, Florida

Employer name: Fast Carpentry I Inc.

Inspection site: 1360 98^th St.
Bay Harbor Island
Florida 33154

Citations issued: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations to Fast Carpentry I Inc. on Sept. 20, 2016, for one willful and one repeated safety violation.

Investigation findings: OSHA began an investigation after local authorities reported a Fast Carpentry employee suffered a workplace injury that required hospitalization. On March 23, 2016, an 18-year-old roofer was installing roofing sheathing when a gust of wind caught the plywood he was carrying causing him to fall approximately 14 feet to the ground. The worker was partially impaled through his upper thigh and buttocks when he landed on a metal fence post. It was his first day on the job.

The willful citation was issued for the employer’s failure to provide fall protection when workers are performing residential construction at heights greater than 6 feet. The repeated violation relates to not providing prevention training so that employees can recognize, minimize and prevent exposure to fall hazards.

Proposed penalties: $152,145

Quote: “Fast Carpentry continues to put employees’ lives at risk by intentionally and repeatedly ignoring OSHA’s standards, and as a result of the company’s reckless actions, a young worker nearly lost his life on his first day on the job,” said Condell Eastmond, OSHA’s area director in Fort Lauderdale. “The company must take immediate action to cease the practice of putting workers’ lives in jeopardy.”

The citations can be viewed at: https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/legacy-files/newsroom/newsreleases/OSHA20161841.pdf

Fast Carpentry meets the listed criteria for inclusion in OSHA’s Severe Violators Enforcement Program, which focuses on recalcitrant employers that endanger workers by committing willful, repeat or failure-to-abate violations. Under the program, the agency may inspect any of the employer’s facilities if it has reasonable grounds to believe there are similar violations. The SVEP allows for an assessment of any new information obtained post-citation issuance that could change the citation and the employer’s proposed inclusion in the program.

Based in Homestead, Florida, Fast Carpentry has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and proposed penalties to comply, request a conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

To ask questions; obtain compliance assistance; file a complaint or report amputations, eye loss, workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA’s toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency’s Fort Lauderdale Area Office at 954-424-0242.