Region 4 News Release: 13-2140-ATL (284)
Nov. 12, 2013
Contact: Lindsay Williams Michael D'Aquino
Phone: 404-562-2078 404-562-2076
Email: williams.lindsay.l@dol.gov d'aquino.michael@dol.gov

Pompano Beach, Fla.-based Coastal Masonry cited by US Department of
Labor's OSHA for willful and serious violations following worker fatality

MIAMI, Fla. – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Coastal Masonry for one willful and one serious safety violation following the death of a worker who fell approximately 70 feet while attempting to straighten a piece of bent rebar at a work site on Brickel Bay Drive in Miami. The Pompano Beach-based company was erecting the interior and exterior walls for a multilevel condominium. OSHA initiated its inspection in May in response to the fatality.

"Coastal Masonry ignored its responsibility to ensure workers performing masonry duties were provided with a fall protection system that would protect them effectively," said Condell Eastmond, OSHA's area director in Fort Lauderdale. "Although the safety director informed management about the deficiencies with the fall protection system, the company allowed workers to be exposed to fall hazards. This employer must act immediately to remove these hazards."

The willful violation involves the employer failing to ensure that workers wearing fall protection systems were not exposed to free-fall hazards greater than 6 feet. 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.

The serious violation involves the employer's failure to inspect fall protection equipment worn by workers before use to ensure defective equipment is removed from service. 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.

The citations for the violations carry $77,000 in proposed penalties. The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA's Fort Lauderdale area director, or contest the citations and penalties 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 Fort Lauderdale office at 954-424-0242.

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 or CD from the COAST office upon request by calling 216-893-7828 or TTY 216-893-7755.