Friday, January 15, 2010

Feds issue blame for sewer deaths

From the Times Ledger:

In June, Harel Dahan was working on cleaning out a dry well inside the Royal Waste Services recycling center at 172-08 Douglas Ave. along with his S. Dahan Piping and Heating Co. co-workers when he fell into the 18-foot hole.

Harel Dahan’s father, Shlomo, who owned the piping company at 126-14 Van Wyck Expwy., went down, along with Royal worker Rene Francisco Rivas, to try and save the 23-year-old, but all three were killed instantly by the high levels of hydrogen sulfide inside the sewer.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration completed its investigation into the incident this week and said S. Dahan Piping and Royal should have taken measures to prevent the deaths.

The agency’s investigation found that S. Dahan should have monitored the air quality in the dry well before anyone entered to clean it out. If it found a danger, OSHA said protective measures such as using breathing apparatuses should have been followed to ensure the safety of the workers.

OSHA also said Regal failed to post signs warning its employees of the potential dangers of working in the confined space.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please be aware that The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Reston, VA has offered courses in working in enclosed areas such as drywells and exposed trenching for years.

If your work requires either entering enclosed areas such as storage containers that may give off toxic vapors or working in collapsible trenching this training can save lives and your business.

Anonymous said...

O.S.H.A. is so full of shit. They are suppose to protect the workers but they fail to do so and in turn they make more safety rules....