Dana Lowe, a 53-year-old subcontractor for steel erector CSE Inc., based in Williston, Vt., died on March 14 in a crane-related accident at a Hanover Inn hotel construction site in Hanover, N.H.Lowe was injured on the afternoon of March 13 when a crane hook hit the aerial lift he was working on, causing it to topple over, according to a statement by Hanover Police Chief Nicholas Giaccone. "Lowe landed on the concrete deck of a portion of new construction," he stated.The New Hampshire Medical Examiner's Office listed the cause of death as blunt-force trauma to the head. The case is
The Gatlinburg, Tenn., wastewater treatment plant has had a third worker fatality in less than a year after an earthen wall collapse killed a demolition worker Feb. 23The identity of the victim was confirmed as Michael “Mike” Eugene Wells, 58, of Candler, N.C., an employee of Roberson Inc. of Enka, N.C. The confirmation was from Brad Searson, an Asheville, N.C., attorney who has been hired by Marjorie Mae Wells, the worker’s widow.Wells “was struck from behind with dirt and rock and received fatal wounds,” according to a statement issued by the City of Gatlinburg after the incident. He was removed
AP/Wideworld Casino floor collapsed as workers were pouring concrete, injuring 13 people. Investigators looking into the cause of a non-fatal construction collapse of a casino floor in Cincinnati in late January and a casino garage deck in Cleveland in late December are searching for common clues, while contractors have added quality controls for extra safety.The developer of both casinos, a joint venture between Rock Gaming LLC and Caesars Entertainment Inc., insists the accidents are not linked. "These are two different construction management companies, two different contractors, two different sites, two different areas," Steve Rosenthal, manager of the $400-million, 354,000-sq-ft Horseshoe
Construction workers who plummet to their deaths while wearing their fall protection equipment always present a puzzle for investigators. So when John Plante, a 44-year-old lineman, fell Jan. 17 from a wooden utility pole while working on a Central Maine Power transmission project in Saco, Maine, no one could immediately explain why.Plante fell more than 40 feet from a 95-ft wooden utility pole, says Don Rassiger, chief counsel for Plante's employer, Hawkeye LLC, a subsidiary of Willbos Utility T & D, Happauge, N.Y. Hawkeye’s work on the $1.4 billion transmission project has been suspended indefinitely pending investigation, according to a
Photo Courtesy of AP Wideworld A fatal flaw in a cold joint, with splicing couplers instead of dowels, weakened the concrete wall. The April wall collapse at a Gatlinburg, Tenn., wastewater treatment plant that killed two workers was caused by deficient construction that allowed gradual corrosion of the rebar inside it, a state safety report said.The report, written by Mahammad Ayub, director of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration office of engineering, and Mary Misciagna, Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health safety supervisor, did not find workplace safety violations, so the state is not issuing citations against the city of
Seven employees of Fluor Corp. were among the 13 people killed in an Oct. 29 suicide bombing of a NATO convoy in Kabul, Afghanistan, CEO David T. Seaton confirmed Nov. 3. The workers were employed by the Irving, Texas-based firm under its Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) IV support contract with the U.S. Army Sustainment Command.A Fluor spokesman says the employees killed are four U.S. citizens, two British nationals and one person from Kosovo. The company declines to identify them or their roles, but says it has informed their families of their deaths.Published reports have identified the British employees as
Britton Bridge LLC, the Mt. Juliet, Tenn., company with two fatalities on a Knoxville bridge project this year, has been fined $7,150 for a pair of violations related to the second death.The Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the company for exposing employees to hazards from falling objects when working on a barge during bridge demolition and for not warning them about hazards from the swing radius of the 300-ton and 150-ton Link Belt cranes mounted on barges below the bridge.Solin Estrada-Jimenez, 49, was killed on May 24 after being hit in the head by a piece of concrete
Related Links: Tennessee Bridge Contractors Work Stopped After Fatality Britton Bridge LLC, the Mt. Juliet, Tenn., company with two separate fatalities on a Knoxville bridge project this year, has been fined $7,150 for a pair of violations related to the second death.The Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the company for exposing employees to hazards from falling objects when working on a barge during bridge demolition and for not warning them about hazards from the swing radius of the 300-ton and 150-ton Link Belt cranes mounted on barges below the bridge.Solin Estrada-Jimenez, 49, was killed May 24 after being
Photo courtesy AWEA EVOLUTION As development in the wind industry reaches maturity, safety-standard requirements are growing. Workers are often perched 60 ft to 100 ft off the ground during installations. As the wind industry expands its reach across the nation and prepares to begin building offshore wind farms, federal agencies and contractors are focusing on improving safety for the growing industry.“Whether you are erecting a wind farm in the mountains of Colorado or the cornfields of Iowa, you can run into a totally different situation and weather can change in a second,” says Brian Sturtecky, area director at the Jacksonville,
Albania Deleon, 41, a fugitive who falsified asbestos certifications for thousands of illegal aliens, was sentenced Sept. 13 in U.S. District Court in Boston to more than seven years in prison. Judge Nathaniel Gorton also ordered her to pay $1.2-million in back taxes and $369,015 in restitution to AIM Mutual Insurance Co., Burlington, Mass. Deleon owned and operated New England’s largest certified asbestos school, Environmental Compliance Training, which issued at least 2,500 certifications to people who hadn't taken courses from 2001 to 2007.Deleon fled the country in 2008, sawing off her ankle monitor and leaving behind her 3-year-old son, following
RSS
