Kaptur Holding OSHA Accountable
July 1st, 2005 by HalU.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, OH, is holding OSHA accountable for lack of oversight at the Toledo I-280 Bridge crane accident resulting in four deaths of Fru-Con employees in Feb. '04. Thankfully, this is a story that just won't go away.
OSHA cited Fru-Con for four willful violations and assessed a fine of $280,000. Later, OSHA reclassified (negotiated) the violations to "unclassified" keeping the fine the same. This potentially has consequences for the families in civil litigation with Fru-Con. Negotiating citations and fines has been a regular practice at OSHA. Congresswoman Kaptur sees it as part of the reason that we continue to have so many deaths in the construction industry.
"(T)hese men died, in my view, because of the apparent willful negligence of the U.S. Department of Labor and OSHA … and there are allies here in the Congress who have been cutting back on worker safety laws and have abdicated their responsibility to conduct aggressive oversight"
The cause of the crane collapse is not completely understood. However, this is not Fru-Con's only problem with cranes. The firm was fined $49,500 for nine serious violations for a death at the Four Bears Bridge. OSHA also negotiated the fines in "settling" this case.
Watch out for Kaptur, "There is a serious abdication of responsibility by the U.S. Department of Labor because this Congress has not held them to a higher standard." She's not letting go of this one.
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