Part 2 Construction Worker Deaths on the Strip: OSHA goes easy

[Omaha Steve]

Part One: http://lasvegassun.com/news/2008/mar/30/construction-deaths/

Nine workers die in 16 months during a Strip building boom. Workers fear for safety on rushed and crowded construction sites. Harold Billingsley and David Rabun are killed in accidents involving multiple safety failures. Victims’ families want contractors held responsible.


Part 2 (today) starts here: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/mar/31/osha-goes-easy/#/Construction_Deaths_9/

By Alexandra Berzon

Mon, Mar 31, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Hundreds of construction workers signed a 10-foot long memorial poster for the family of Harold Billingsley after the 46-year-old ironworker plunged to his death at CityCenter last year.

Four months later, on a night in February, relatives unrolled the poster at the home of his sister, Monique Cole, and her husband. Cole placed Billingsley’s brown leather boots and sticker-covered construction helmet on the kitchen table. The family had gathered to talk to a reporter.

“It feels like they rendered my brother’s life valueless,” Cole said, crying as she recalled the Nevada OSHA conclusion that Billingsley’s employer bore no responsibility for his death. “You assume all the right things are in place until you’re faced with it.”

Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration conducted a one-month investigation after Billingsley fell 59 feet to his death. The conclusion: SME Steel Contractors, Billingsley’s employer, had violated safety laws by leaving the hole in an unfinished temporary floor. Also, his safety harness wasn’t working properly.

“The foreman was on site, aware of the progress of the work and the area where the employee was working,” OSHA inspectors wrote. “With reasonable diligence the hazard could have been detected and prevented.”

Another thing could possibly have saved his life. OSHA regulations call for a net or a temporary floor every two floors below employees working on steel erection. Billingsley, however, plummeted nearly twice that far because neither was in place.

FULL story and video at link.