Florida Roofing Contractor Cited After Worker Fatally Injured from Fall
The company was cited for a violation relating to fall hazards.
- By Alex Saurman
- Jul 29, 2022
A roofing contractor was cited by OSHA following the death of a worker from a fall.
According to a press release, in January 2022, employees were working two stories high on a roof with no fall protection. One of the workers, a 25-year-old, fell from the roof. They died in the hospital in February 2022.
In 2018, the employer, J & L Roofing Inc. of Florida, was cited for a lack of fall protection at another site. The agency “determined that the company's failure to heed that warning claimed the life of a 25-year-old worker in February 2022,” the press release said.
OSHA cited J & L Roofing Inc. for one willful violation for "exposing workers engaged in roofing activities to fall hazards without protection" and one serious violation for a lack of training on fall arrest systems. The company was also cited for an other-than-serious violation for not reporting the worker’s hospitalization in time. OSHA proposed penalties of $74,751.
"Had J & L Roofing, Inc. ensured that its workers were protected from the construction industry’s leading cause of death, a young man's life could have been spared," said OSHA Area Office Director Condell Eastmond in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the press release. "Instead, a family and a community are left to grieve and an employer is learning a painful lesson that federal workplace safety standards exist to help prevent needless and unnecessary tragedies."
Falls hazards in construction are one of the main causes of fatal injury. In 2020, according to the BLS, 645 workers died from falls to a lower level. In the construction industry that year, 353 workers died of the same falls.
About the Author
Alex Saurman is a former Content Editor for Occupational Health & Safety,who has since joined OH&S’s client services team. She continues to work closely with OH&S’s editorial team and contributes to the magazine.