Photo calls worker safety into question on public works project
June 21, 2012 by Fred HosierPosted in: Compliance, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, OSHA news
PDF It’s happened again. A newspaper photo shows workers breaking OSHA violations. The photo showed three workers painting a foot-bridge above a creek. Their use of ladders placed in the creek came into question.
The workers were putting the finishing touches on the Baker Park swinging bridge in Frederick, MD.
The photo, published in The Frederick News-Post, showed the workers from the city’s Public Works Department painting as they stood on stepladders in the middle of a creek.
A wooden plank stretched between two ladders. Two workers were standing on the plank.
A resident, who identified himself as a retired federal OSHA official, wrote to a Frederick County commissioner, saying that the photo captured several safety violations.
“I can only imagine the financial impact to the taxpayers if one of those workers had fallen and sustained a serious injury, or even worse death,” wrote Walter Bailey, the former safety official.
The mayor of Frederick said officials were aware of the safety problems and were addressing them.
As we’ve noted, this isn’t the only example of potential safety violations being brought to light by a newspaper photo.
Here’s some irony for you: The bridge had been closed to the public for more than four years … for safety reasons.
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Tags: Frederick News-Post, newspaper photo, painting, stepladder safety
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June 27th, 2012 at 10:24 am
Give them a break. It is ~two foot of water. The water would cushion there fall if they fell. They are working on 6′ and 8′ ladders. We are not talking about 30 feet in the air with a plank for a scaffold. The guy who called in was probally more likely to die from a heart attack reading this in the paper than they were of haveing an accident. Let the men work.
June 27th, 2012 at 2:44 pm
Joe from Texas! PLEASE do not bloviaite about that which you obviously know NOTHING about. the guys o that ladder could be seriously injured if they fell. PERIOD. A proper set up would cost relatively little and they would spend half the time doing the job with secure footing. SAFETY PAYS! in so many ways. Thats it that’s is all the time I give to stupidity
July 3rd, 2012 at 4:16 pm
When I read this article I see two things, 1) a retired safety guru who misses his power trip from his former glory days as a federal safety inspector, and 2) a grandstanding city council member who happens to own a construction company complaining that the work should have gone to a private construction company, (perhaps his?!?). Gee, no conflict of interest there.