Employees at Brooklyn demolition site faced potentially fatal falls
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle has learned that workers demolishing a three-unit, three-story residential building in Brooklyn’s Prospect-Lefferts Gardens section were exposed to potentially fatal falls due to their employer’s failure to provide and ensure the use of lifesaving fall protection.
As a result, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has proposed $45,200 in penalties against Brooklyn contractor US Demco of Brooklyn Inc. for one willful and seven serious violations of workplace safety standards.
“Falls remain the leading cause of death in construction work,” said Kay Gee, OSHA’s area director for Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. “Yet, on at least two occasions, an OSHA inspector discovered US Demco employees working on the second- and third-floor levels without fall protection, even though US Demco had knowledge of this deadly and avoidable hazard.”