Construction accidents can leave a worker seriously injured and possibly unable to continue working. There are many potential causes of construction accidents and many accidents in California are the result of an employer’s failure to take the appropriate measures to ensure that a workplace is safe. Often employers are aware of the federal safety regulations but choose to ignore these guidelines to increase their profit margins at their employees’ expense.
One construction company was recently fined by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration for maintaining an extremely dangerous worksite that contained several serious workplace safety violations. Unfortunately this company’s safety violations are not unique and many construction workers are injured before OSHA inspectors became involved.
The violations were found at a construction site for a bridge project and included serious fall hazards. OSHA has increased its inspection of similar construction sites throughout the country because of the high-hazard nature of the construction industry. An Employment lawyer in Los Angeles understand these type of cases.
OSHA inspectors at the construction site also found that the bidirectional machines at the site did not have working horns to warn workers. High-visibility materials did not mark the top rails of a guardrail system at the site and machines had deficient lockout/tagout systems. This means that the machines could have experienced unexpected startups that injured others.
“The construction industry continues to remain one of the most dangerous, and heavy highway and bridge work entails a variety of unique hazards,” said Lisa Levy, an OSHA office director. “The company needs to ensure that violations of this nature are not repeated.”
The total penalties and fines against the company were $41,580. For more information contact Lakewood personal injury attorney.