PROVIDENCE – Fall River-based Miranda Construction Co. Inc. faces proposed fines of $109,000 for allegedly exposing workers to serious fall hazards at a residential site in Newport, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced today.
An inspection of a work site at 304 Broadway – begun June 19 in response to a report of unsafe conditions – found that Miranda employees were exposed to falls of up to 12 feet from an unguarded roof, and falls of up to 27 feet from an unsecured ladder and an unguarded pump-jack scaffold, OSHA said. In addition, the agency said, the scaffold’s supporting poles were not properly plumbed or secured, and Miranda employees working beneath the scaffold lacked protective head gear.
“There’s no excuse for not protecting employees against the No. 1 killer in construction work,” Patrick Griffin, OSHA’s Rhode Island area director, said in a statement today. “Employees at this and other jobsites who lack required fall protection are just one step away from death or disabling injuries.”
As a result of the inspection, Miranda Construction was issued seven citations for alleged willful, repeat and serious violations of safety standards at the work site, OSHA said. (The agency defines a willful violation as one committed with indifference to, or intentional disregard of, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 and related regulations; a serious violation is one involving a hazard the employer knew about or should have known about, from which death or serious physical harm is likely to result.)
The company was given 15 business days to seek an informal conference with the OSHA area director or contest the citations before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
“The sizable fines proposed in this case reflect the fact that this employer has been cited repeatedly in Rhode Island and Massachusetts for not providing this basic, common-sense and legally required safeguard,” Griffin said. OSHA has cited the company with a total of 17 fall and scaffolding violations since 1995, according to the agency’s Providence office.
Last December, OSHA announced it was fining Miranda Construction $40,000 for hazards at a work site on Newport’s Beacon Hill Road. (READ MORE) In other recent incidents, OSHA said, the company was cited in 2005 for fall hazards at work sites in Cranston and North Dartmouth and in 2003 for fall hazards at a site in New Bedford.
Additional information, including advice on workplace safety, is available from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration at www.osha.gov.
