.png)
A federal investigation unveiled some safety violations at a tunneling construction site in New York, according to the Wall Street Journal. The US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspected the site between Long Island and Grand Central Terminal after a construction accident on October 15, 2011 injured workers. OSHA has fined the contractor, Dragados USA-Judlau JV, $48,000 for various safety violations that contributed to the accident.
According to reports, a runaway rail car struck an aerial lift and injured two workers at the site back in October. OSHA claims the accident could have been prevented if the wheels to the rail car had been locked and the car had been chained. In addition, the workers on the lift had no radio to be alerted when the car was running towards them. According to OSHA, had Dragados-Judlau performed even a simple inspection, inspectors would have noticed these issues. This East Side Access project near Grand Central Terminal has been dubbed a “mega project” by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and will provide access tunnels to a new station beneath the Grand Central Terminal Station.
“We have been working with the contractor to address the issues raised by OSHA and more broadly to improve workers’ overall safety on the East Side Access project,” said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in a statement. “The contractor has taken steps over the last several months to make safety an even higher priority in their works.”
With such a large scale construction contract, this contractor needs to be especially careful to ensure that all safety protocols are followed.
Larrimer & Larrimer, LLC—Columbus workers comp attorneys.