Workplace Safety Negligence – Case of OneKey Construction Company

A construction company in New Jersey was mentioned by the occupational safety and health administration for neglecting its working station. The fatal accident took place on 3th August 2017 at a construction site in Poughkeepsie leaving one employee dead and the other injured. The calamity was as a result of failure of providing a safe working environment for constructors. While the two employees were still working, a portion of concrete retentive partition holding loam fell on them. The OneKey company faced a penalty of $281,583 since the accident happened due to negligence by the project manager.

After an investigation was carried out by OSHA, they determined that the wall had not been designed by a qualified engineer and that the construction had not been approved by the authorities. The company also faced charges for failing to offer education to their staff on the importance of keeping distance from the wall and at the same time they did not provide proper protection in case the worker fell. When an autopsy was carried out on the dead employee, it was determined that they succumbed to their death due to crushing and blunted force damages. The violation synopsis delivered by Osha indicated that the company failed to guard their staff from the risks associated with downfall of a soil surge and also, they failed to uphold a 45 degrees incline at the extremity of the surge.

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 Lack of proper communication from project managers will eventually cause serious accidents in the construction areas as seen in the New Jersey OneKey construction company. Safety in the workplace is a significant feature of up-to-date building supervision. Protection actions at construction locations assist in preventing unexpected calamities such as falling which may result to deaths or injuries. Therefore, security and safety measures should be an essential part of the processes of every construction site. Falling in construction areas is one of the major causes of injuries and deaths (Nadhim et al., 2016). To avoid this death, the project manager would have implemented a number of safety measures that would have aided in reducing the accident rates in the workplace. To start with, installation of fall protection systems will help in protecting employees from falling. These structures should comprise of objects such as nets or rails just to mention a few. Also, scaffolding is significant as it assists in averting falls but they need to be fit well to make sure it is built well enough to accommodate the envisioned load.

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To prevent this death, the company should have implemented fall prevention and safety plan before the construction started. Another safety measure that would have aided in preventing this death is that the management should provide protective clothing such as hard hats and gloves just to mention a few to the workers when they are around the construction areas. In addition, providing training to the workers on how to properly use their fall protection machinery assists in decreasing injury and death risks. Communication in a construction workplace is important to prevent falling. Moreover, they would have prevented the employee from falling from unprotected edges by covering it up immediately and by keeping working area clean of clutter that could cause a trip. Also, the company would have avoided this death by using a registered engineer in the construction and designing of the wall.

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Accidental damages in the workplace is one of the leading reasons of work related injuries and death. According to Friis (2016), businesses found guilty of conscious violation of OSHA principles are likely to be charged with illegal and civil forfeits depending on the solemnity of the accident. Workplace negligence lead to recoverable damages such as falling or musculoskeletal wounds.

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