Region 2 News Release: 11-1732-NEW/BOS 2011-399
Dec. 12, 2011
Contact: Ted Fitzgerald
Phone: 617-565-2074
Email: fitzgerald.edmund@dol.gov

US Labor Department's OSHA cites Little River, SC, painting contractor
for willful and serious fall hazards at Elmsford, NY, work site
DR Moore Co. faces more than $58,000 in fines

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited D.R. Moore Co. LLC, a Little River, S.C., painting contractor, for alleged willful and serious violations of workplace safety standards at an Elmsford, N.Y., work site. The company faces a total of $58,400 in proposed fines for fall hazards identified by OSHA while D.R. Moore was power washing, painting and caulking the exterior of an extended stay hotel located at 118 W. Main St.

OSHA's Tarrytown Area Office opened its inspection on Oct. 6 when Moore employees were observed standing on a ladder placed in an aerial lift basket that was elevated 78 feet above the ground. Other identified fall hazards included employees not using a body belt or lanyard while working in the basket, two employees with their lanyards attached to the same anchorage point and improperly attached lanyards.

"Fall hazards are not only the most frequently cited hazards in construction work, they also are the deadliest," said Diana Cortez, OSHA's area director for Westchester, Rockland and Bronx counties. "A fall can kill or disable a worker in seconds unless proper and effective safeguards are implemented and followed at all times on all job sites."

Specifically, D.R. Moore has been cited for two willful violations with $50,000 in fines for allowing employees to work from a ladder in the elevated basket and not ensuring that they wore a body belt and/or lanyard while working from the basket. Two serious violations with $8,400 in fines were cited for the anchorage and lanyard hazards. A willful violation is one committed with intentional knowing or voluntary disregard for the law's requirements, or with plain indifference to worker safety and health. A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.

"One means of preventing workplace hazards such as these is for employers to implement effective illness and injury prevention programs in which they work continuously with their employees to identify and eliminate hazards," said Robert Kulick, OSHA's regional administrator in New York.

Detailed information on fall protection hazards and safeguards is available at http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/fallprotection/construction.html.

D.R. Moore has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and proposed penalties to comply, meet with OSHA's area director or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or report workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA's toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency's Tarrytown office at 914-524-7510.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA's role is to ensure these conditions for America's working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.

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U.S. Department of Labor news materials are accessible at http://www.dol.gov. The information above is available in large print, Braille, audio tape or disc from the COAST office upon request by calling 202-693-7828 or TTY 202-693-7755.