HVAC installer Timothy O’Neal Gearing and a co-worker were trying to unjam a saw stuck in a metal roof when the saw jerked loose, causing Gearing to lose his balance and fall through an unguarded skylight. The 39-year-old plunged to the concrete ground 15 feet below died from his injuries after being transported to a hospital.
When followed, safety standards save lives and painful injuries. In the construction industry, ignoring them can lead to disaster, as it did for 54-year-old Gary Berthelot as he helped rebuild a Mississippi restaurant damaged by Hurricane Isaac.
An 18-year-old man lost his life just three months after starting work for Lunda Construction Company. The carpenter's apprentice was mixing concrete for the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge resurfacing project when a rough-terrain forklift struck and killed him.
Behr Iron & Steel Inc. of Rockford, Illinois pleaded guilty yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Iain D. Johnston to willfully violating OSHA regulations, resulting in the death of an employee at the company’s facility in South Beloit, Ill.
A total of 500 workplaces across the island will be inspected over the next four weeks after nine workers died in accidents last month, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said.
“A 21-year-old worker, with three months of work experience under her belt, lost her life because Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation failed to provide appropriate training and protective equipment to workers handling pyrotechnics.”
The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) has produced a new brush chipper safety manual that outlines safe equipment operation, start-up and shutdown guidelines, and maintenance precautions for a variety of brush chipper machine types.
