For every construction accident, safety experts say, as many as 100 near- misses occur. A quick response this year at the Blue Cross-Blue Shield building in Chicago is an example of one such accident averted. On Jan. 21, crews were building a $270-million vertical “extension,” adding 24 floors onto the existing, occupied 33-story building. An operator was swinging a Potain MR605B luffing jib to make a pick. That’s when workers heard a loud “pop” and got concerned, according to a source involved with the project, who asked not to be named. Rather than pushing on, the operator “dogged” off the
On June 3, Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons (R) signed into law a bill requiring construction workers to undergo mandatory 10-hour Occupational Safety and Health Administration safety training within 15 days of hire; supervisors must undergo 30 hours of OSHA training. The measure was enacted one year after Perini Building Co., a unit of Tutor Perini Corp., Framingham, Mass., and the Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council agreed to end a 24-hour strike that erupted over six jobsite deaths within 18 months at the $8.6-billion CityCenter development on the Las Vegas Strip. The law becomes effective on Jan. 1, 2010.
Stop mixing messages. That is what a team of safety researchers urged Perini Building Co. to do during worker orientations last fall following an assessment of the CityCenter project and another Perini project nearby. The mixed-message advice was one of the most interesting aspects of the assessment. Although Perini seemed on the surface to have the best safety communication practices, the assessment team claimed that the message was compromised. Photo: Tony Illia Bilingual instruction at CityCenter’s safety orientation lasted only 15 minutes. Related Links: Las Vegas CityCenter Project: Inside a Safety Turnaround Perini’s direct messages seemed to reflect an enlightened
A severe thunderstorm north of Dallas caused the collapse on May 2 of a practice facility used by the Dallas Cowboys professional football team, which seriously injured three of the 70 people in the facility at the time. Summit Structures, Allentown, Pa., manufactured the 80-ft-tall pre-engineered, steel-framed, fabric-covered membrane building, which it erected in 2003 and upgraded in 2008. The National Weather Service determined the maximum winds near the ground were 70 mph at the time of the collapse. Photo: AP/Wideworld
My first workday at CityCenter—the Las Vegas Strip’s $8.6-billion mixed-use development, the country’s largest privately financed project—started last fall at the pitch- black hour of 6:30 a.m. I was nervous about my decision to shadow new construction hires during their safety training. Six workers had died on the project since 2007, sparking pickets and pressure that led to mandatory safety training. In the back of my mind was the fact that my brother-in-law, Darin, had suffered a near-fatal construction accident about a year earlier at another project and had returned to work at CityCenter. Now, months after my first day
Following its sudden collapse May 2 of a fabric-covered indoor practice facility, neither the Dallas Cowboys nor the company that designed and supplied the structure are talking about the design or the engineering of the membrane-covered structure. With lawsuits likely to follow an event that resulted in three serious injuries, the National Football League team and Summit Structures are deferring detailed questions until an Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation is complete. OSHA routinely takes up to six months to complete accident investigations. Photo: AP Footballer Travis Bright, along with Dallas Cowboys teammates and staff, searches wreckage for trapped people
The general contractor and structural engineer involved in a November, 2006 crane collapse in Bellevue, Wash., settled a civil lawsuit with the family of the man who died when the 210-ft tower crane’s boom hit his apartment. Details of the settlement, announced April 20, were not disclosed. Carl Amundson Crane mast fell across excavation. Related Links: Stabilizing Site a Priority After Crane Topples Crane Expert Raises Safety Bar The toppled tower crane also damaged Plaza 305, an office building adjacent to the site. Matthew Ammon, a Microsoft attorney, lived across the street from the Tower 333 site, where the crane
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has named Jordan Barab, a House Education and Labor Committee staffer, as deputy assistant secretary for the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. Barab, whose appointment was announced April 8, also will be acting head of OSHA, beginning April 13. House committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) said that Barab "will bring a tremendous amount of valuable health and safety experience to an agency that has been neglected for far too long." Barab, senior policy advisor for the committee, has worked for the panel for two years on health and safety matters. He came to the House committee
Two wrongful-death lawsuits filed late last month in the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan allege that public safety officials with New York City, employees working for crane owner James F. Lomma, site contractors and consultants knew that a Kodiak tower crane was unfit for service before it collapsed and killed two workers last May. Attorneys for the families of the victims— crane operator Donald C. Leo and Ramadan Kurtaj, a sewer technician who was working near the crane—are suing the city and other parties seeking damages.
The U.S. Dept. of Labor has proposed $201,600 in penalties against O’Neill, Neb.-based John Prouty Construction, Inc., for alleged safety violations related to a Sept. 12, 2008 trench collapse that killed four workers. The accident occurred near Verdel, Neb., and caused a chain reaction of fatalities. The four workers died after the trench collapsed and one of the workers, Travis Lunn, 24, of O’Neill, fell into the trench. Three of Lunn’s coworkers tried to rescue him and were caught in the trench. Also killed were David Peterson, 35, of O’Neill; Gary Forsch, 61, of Spencer, Neb.; and Brad Kelly, 43,
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