Deadly accidents in Las Vegas leave workers gambling on safety (no breathing apparatus)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-vegas28-2008jul28,0,5404019.story



Craig L. Moran / Las Vegas Review-Journal
INJURED: David Snow was left with disabling injuries when he tried to rescue two Orleans co-workers in a sewage pit. Investigators said the hotel and casino “willfully” violated safety rules in the accident, which claimed the lives of the two workers. But political appointees at OSHA lessened that finding, a common practice in Las Vegas.


Twelve have died at buildings and construction sites. In case after case, the state has dropped or sharply reduced penalties proposed by investigators.

By Ralph Vartabedian, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 28, 2008

LAS VEGAS -- A recently hired plumber was sent into the bowels of the Orleans hotel and casino last year to unplug a sewer pipe in a large grease trap -- an assignment that would be his last.

The hotel had no permit or training program to allow plumber Richard Luzier to enter a confined space where he might inhale poisonous sewer gas. He had no breathing apparatus or emergency rescue harness -- all routine precautions.

FOR THE RECORD:
Las Vegas building accidents: An article in Monday's Section A about a deadly streak of construction and building accidents in Las Vegas said that D. Roger Bremner, director of the Nevada Division of Industrial Relations, met with Boyd Gaming officials and reduced the severity of proposed workplace safety citations after an accident killed two workers at the company's Orleans Hotel and Casino. Bremner said he made the decision but did not meet with the company's officials. —


Luzier fell 12 feet and landed face down in fatty sewage. As supervisors watched, a second unprepared worker, Travis Koehler, went into the pit to help. He collapsed on top of Luzier. A third man, David Snow, was sent in.

By the time city rescue personnel could enter the trap, Snow was in a coma, heaped atop the first two men, who were dead. Snow woke 23 days later in the hospital with a tube down his throat and permanent disabling injuries.

Investigators at the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration concluded that the casino, owned by Boyd Gaming Corp., had "willfully" violated safety rules.

FULL story at link.