Company Cited Following Fall Fatality

Work-related fatal falls continue to take a terrible toll in the workplace. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 815 workers throughout the US lost their lives in falls in 2004. In Canada, a worker dies in a fall about every three days. Yet companies everywhere continue to let workers perform their jobs without fall protection.

One company that allegedly did so has been ordered to pay $63,000 following a worker fatality at a construction site. A worker who had been placing decking on a roof stepped onto some insulation and fell to the concrete below in December 2005.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited Crossland Construction Co. of Arkansas for four alleged serious and one repeat violation following a comprehensive inspection. Citations being alleged include failure to ensure that personal fall-arrest systems were used by employees working from booms or baskets of aerial lifts, failure to train employees to recognize and avoid scaffold hazards, and failure to ensure that OSHA’s decking zone standards (regarding safe working area boundaries) were followed.