Another New York worker dies in a fall

A day laborer working for Nesher Construction fell to his death down an open elevator shaft in Brooklyn yesterday:

A day laborer doing tile work at a Brooklyn construction site died yesterday after he lost his bearings and fell four stories through an open elevator shaft, officials said. The man, whose identity was not immediately known, was pronounced dead at Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center at 11:18 a.m., an hour after the accident, the police said. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the city’s Buildings Department are investigating. A Buildings Department spokeswoman, Kate Lindquist, said that a stop work order was issued because no guardrails were in place, as required, around elevator openings. A superintendent at Nesher Construction, the general contractor, said that the victim worked for a subcontractor and that protective plywood had been in place over “all the elevator openings” at the start of work. [NYT]

The accident occurred at 44 Troutman St. in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn.

The Department of Buildings issued a stop work order on the site following the accident. (City records list the general contractor in charge of the 44 Troutman St. project as "Nesher Builders.")

These records show that in 2006 Nesher Builders was fined $2,500 for "Failure to protect roofs outlets & skylights of adjoining property during construction operations" at 44 Troutman St.

Nesher Builders didn't show up at their ECB hearing for that violation. As of this writing, Nesher Buildings is listed as being "in default" for the hearing and "no compliance" for the Class A (high-severity) violation.

I hope they don't skip out on their ECB hearing this time.

Comments

[tps12]

$2500? There need to be criminal charges.

[Paul Hooson]

As rotten as some U.S. safety and workplace standards are, nothing beats China. Thousands die in needless mine accidents each year. Virtually unregulated air pollution from industrial growth makes the breathing air for small children as bad as breathing two packs of cigarettes a day, and will decrease their lives by just about the same amount as smokers would. 50% of all smokers die from their drug addiction. About 50% of Chinese children will eventually die in major industrial cities from industry related air or water pollution or an industrial workplace accident.

My favorite virtually unknown safety hazzard for persons in the U.S. is the extremely high cancer causing benzene content in oil from Alaska that normal refinery or automobile air pollution systems do not filter. This is the big dirty secret of oil from Alaska. The benzene levels of this oil is many times that of oil from anywhere else in the world, yet the oil industry and those promotting more oil from Alaska will not tell you about this.

A person does not even have to work for a company to become a victim of their industrial policies.

[Alon Levy]

Is Nesher's failure to protect roofs enough for it to be considered liable for the worker's death?

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Alon, the failure to protect roofs probably has nothing to do with the worker's death. The guy fell down an elevator shaft that the contractor swears was boarded up.

The DOB issued a stop work order on the project because there were no guardrails around the elevator shafts. That safety lapse alone probably makes Nesher liable for the worker's death.

It is also significant that Nesher has a very serious black mark on its safety record for this project. In 2006, they were cited for a class-A (highest priority) breech of the building code and they didn't even show up for their hearing. As far as I can tell from the records, they didn't pay their fine either.

[aeroman]

Do you know if short-term defaulting on fines is a common practice? I can imagine it not being a terribly big deal.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Aeroman, I don't have any quantitative data regarding the percentage of short-term defaulters on DOB-imposed fines, but my impression is that long-term defaults aren't exactly rare. (I do know from a DOB official and others that long-term violations are common for companies that can afford to pay minimal fines for illegal practices that are very lucrative. That's what kept the illegal sidewalk shed and scaffold ad industry in business for so long. The city is finally cracking down on that racket, thankfully.)

If you browse the DOB website--just enter any New York address that pops into your head to see what complaints and fines have been levied against any given lot. There's a feature that lets you browse the neighboring lots, and so on. I've spent a lot of time poking around on the site, and it's not at all uncommon to see fines that were levied in the eighties and nineties that still haven't been collected.

Frankly, I don't care how big a deal it is in the grand scheme of revenues to the city. It bothers me that any corporations, especially fly-by-night contractors who are caught red-handed putting people in danger or making lives miserable for their neighbors are allowed to pay fines at their own convenience, if at all.

If you or I owed $2500 to the city, you know we couldn't just skip our hearings and go on indefinitely without paying.