OSHA probes trash man’s DUMBO tragedy
The U.S. Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has opened an investigation of Saturday morning’s tragic accident involving a young worker at a private garbage firm in DUMBO.
On that day, police from Downtown Brooklyn’s 84th Precinct responded to 136 Plymouth St., where 18-year-old Bronx resident
Luis Caraballo, an employee of Chambers Paper Fibres Corp., was apparently standing too close to his truck’s compactor. After his torso was crushed by the compactor, he was rushed to Long Island College Hospital, but doctors and nurses were unable to save him.
“The purpose of OSHA’s inspection is to determine if there were any violations of workplace safety standards in connection with this incident,” Edmund Fitzgerald, a spokesman for OSHA in Boston, told the Eagle.
“At this time it’s too early to estimate a completion date for OSHA’s inspection. By law, an inspection can take no longer than 180 days,” he said. He added that although OSHA is a federal agency, its jurisdiction includes “most private-sector workplaces.”