New York Personal Injury Attorneys BlogMost cited OSHA safety violations in 2018
Failure to provide fall protection to workers continues to be the most frequent violation found by OSHA inspectors while visiting construction sites or any other work site of other industries. From October 1st 20017 to September 20 2018, OSHA issued 7,270 violations to employers who failed to provide their employees with appropriate fall protection. Falls are also the number one cause of death on American construction sites. One of the most serious violators was Kasper Roofing & Construction in Florida. OSHA proposed a fine of $134,510 after the death of a roofer. Roofers for this company were working with no protection at all and without any safety training on fall hazards.
The second most common OSHA citation was related to hazard communication. Companies using toxic or dangerous chemicals and substances are required by law to proprely identify and label these products. They have to make sure that their employees know about the potential danger of these products by providing them with appropriate training on how to work with or near these products. At the beginning of this month an employee at a drilling company in Alabama died after flammable welding gas stored in an unventilated storage container exploded when he opened the door of the container. The employer, Legend Directional Services LLC, was cited by OSHA for failing to train employees on hazards associated with flammable chemicals. The company is facing a $28,455 fine.
Scaffold violations were the third most common violation found by OSHA inspectors. 3,336 companies were cited over the last year for unsafely using scaffolds. The highest proposed fine was $120,320 to Appleton roofing contractor Hector Hernandez. Hernandez employees were neither trained on fall hazards nor provided with fall protection equipment. The contractor also failed to install an extension ladder for safe egress and failed to provide required ladder jack scaffold components.
3,118 employers were cited for not providing appropriate respiratory protection to protect their employees from harmful dust fog, fumes, mist, gases, smoke, sprays or vapors. OSHA issued 2,944 violations to contractors who failed to lockout or tagout equipment. 2,812 ladder violations were issued. The agency also issued 2,294 violations to companies that failed to apply proper safety standards while using powered industrial trucks. 1,982 companies that didn’t train their employees proprely were cited by OSHA as well as 1,932 that didn’t guard a machine proprely and 1,536 of them who didn’t provide adequate eye and face protection to their employees.
