Now, Maurice Buzzell, owner of Buzzell Tree Service in East Kingston, NH, has been ordered to receive arborist training, perform 100 hours of community service and make 10 presentations to students about workplace safety.

He’s to appear in front of the judge again in a year to show that he’s completed the terms of his suspended sentence.

Earlier this year, a jury found Buzzell guilty of the homicide charge and a reckless conduct charge in the death of 22-year-old Jon Paul LaVigueur.

Prosecutors recommended a 1- to 3-year prison term. The maximum he could have received was 7 years in jail.

But Judge Diane Nicolosi said, “Mr. Buzzell is not an uncaring man. I think he is grieving for this man (LaVigueur).”

In August 2007, LaVigueur was struck in the head and torso by parts of an 80-foot pine tree. He was part of a four-person team pulling down the tree. As it started to fall, LaVigueur ran in the same direction it fell.

Former employees testified they were taught by Buzzell not to move out of the way until a tree started to fall.

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Last week, a worker was killed when he fell more than 20 stories from a high-rise construction site in Dallas.

Jose Aguila, 37, was installing metal louvers on the side of the building. A scaffold collapsed, and the worker’s safety harness failed, according to a report by NBC-5 in Dallas.

In June, OSHA announced an increase in construction-site inspections in Texas due to the high rate of worker fatalities and serious injuries.

Raleigh Roussell, with contractor organization TEXO, complains that some OSHA inspectors arriving at construction sites are transfers from other OSHA areas who don’t have construction experience. “The hazards are much different than those in a plant,” he said.

Personal injury attorney Mark Werbner is also critical of OSHA’s inspections, but for a much different reason.

Werbner says the agency is still far too easy on contractors and the fines for violations aren’t high enough.

What do you think? Let us know in the Comments Box below.