OSHA Austin Area 2017 Fatality Report

Austin’s OSHA Regional Office today released the final update for their 2016-17 workplace fatality report.

Read the accident descriptions and you’ll soon realize how easily these workplace fatalities could have been prevented. A second of inattention, forgetting to buckle a seatbelt, ….

These fatalities are a stark reminder of the vital importance of implementing an EHS Compliance and OSHA compliance program and building a culture of safety within companies. This can raise awareness among employees of the importance of safety and ultimately prevent needless workplace injuries and fatalities.

Austin Fatalities & Accidents FY 2017

10-8-16	Centerline Services, LLC. Co. Size: 15 NAICS: 238210 Hispanic: N Age: 33	Kingsland	Crew of two workers repairing a concrete culvert near edge of lake. One worker walked off to truck for tools and returned to find other worker was missing. Hat seen floating in water. Rescuers pulled second worker from water, who appeared to have drowned. Victim: Garrett Corban
11-29-16	L3 Communications Co. Size: 38,000 NAICS: 561621 Hispanic: N Age: 37	Austin	A worker was electrocuted while attempting to repair an baggage scanner at the Austin airport due to a loose/disconnected neutral wire in power cable to the scanner, causing arcing. Victim: Luke Dundore
11-17-16	H.E.B. Co. Size: 90,000 NAICS: 445110 Hispanic: N Age: 57	Dripping Springs	After a site visit to a grocery store, a worker posed with store members for a group photo. While on posing, the worker lost her balance, fell on the same level and broke her femur. The worker was hospitalized and subsequently died of complications. Victim: Donna Drury
12-9-16	AT & T Co. Size: 21141 NAICS: 517919 Hispanic: N Age: 46	Austin	Driver of an 18 wheeler dump truck was backing up when truck rolled over onto worker putting in a fiber optics service, crushing him. The dump truck driver suffered a broken arm. Victim: David Jur
12-12-16	Frontier Communications Co. Size: 26,000 NAICS: 517919 Hispanic: Y Age: 62	Bryan	Employee returned to the company yard with his bucket truck after his last job of the day. Since he was the last to return to the yard, he was going to lock up the gate for the evening. He was found by fellow employees on the ground and the truck came to rest against another vehicle. It was reported he stated the vehicle ran over him. Victim: Raul Pequeno
1-10-17	JCW Construction Co. Size: 14 NAICS: 541320 Hispanic: N Age: Unknown	Boerne	A temporary worker tried to retrieve a hat from IH-10 when he was hit by U-Haul truck. Victim: Daniel Butler
1-20-17	Jimmy Evans Company, LTD Co. Size: 300 NAICS: 236220 Hispanic: Y Age: 39	Round Rock	A superintendent was operating a motor grader on a road construction site. He went over a bump in the road, hit his head on the cab canopy, and fell out of the motor grader. Worker was not wearing a seat belt, and the motor grader ran over the worker. Victim: William Duenez, Jr.
4-15-17	Urban Concrete Contractors, LLC. Co. Size: 500 NAICS: 238140 Hispanic: Y Age: 47	Falls City	On 4/15/17 Victim was cleaning out the bottom of an excavation approximately 8 feet deep and 3 feet wide when the dirt wall collapsed, pushing him into the concrete retaining wall striking his head. Victim: Abelardo Rodriguez

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By Russell Carr|2020-06-02T11:47:56-05:00April 26th, 2017|OSHA Texas Laws & Regulations, Safety Training, Texas OSHA Compliance|Comments Off

About the Author: Russell Carr

How A Sales Guy Transformed Into An Environmental, Health & Safety Expert & Advocate For Small Businesses

I've spent my entire 30+ year career working within the manufacturing and “industrial services” sectors.

The first 15 years of my career focused on sales of hazardous materials related products and services to the manufacturing sector, then for the last 16+ years transitioned into entrepreneurship, founding 3 small industrial services related contracting businesses. As you’ll see below, running these companies eventually lead me to found yet a 4th business, but more on that in a minute….

Here’s a brief description of the first 3 companies:

Berg Environmental Services, Inc.: hazardous waste disposal & transportation services, founded in August of 2003 3rd party wind energy operations & maintenance services provider to utility scale wind farms throughout the US, founded in September 2007 3rd party oil & gas exploration & production services provider, founded in August of 2011

Each of these companies operated in extremely dangerous working conditions and exposed my employees to a wide range of serious health & safety hazards on a daily basis.

To complicate matters, 2 of the companies also exposed the environment to significant potential harm.

In other words, I learned very early the critical importance of managing environmental, health and safety issues so as to ensure the safety of our employees and the environment, as well as minimizing related risks.

But I also learned how incredibly difficult and challenging this endeavor can be due to the wide range of complicated and continually changing environmental, health and safety rules and regulations that impacted the companies.

To summarize the challenges: First I had to determine which regulations applied to each company, then I had to build compliance programs to meet those regulations, and finally I had to ensure that the programs were being managed and followed by our staff on a daily basis.

All while trying to run and grow 3 profitable businesses….

It was overwhelming and I always struggled to keep up.

To make matters worse, throughout this time I also witnessed the devastating price that companies, management and ownership can pay for failing to manage EHS compliance.

This included seeing one of my hazardous waste management clients get sent to jail over environmental issues, another client’s management team threatened with jail time, a direct competitor get fined $378,000 by OSHA fine after an employee was nearly killed, and many others face major fines and penalties.

Full disclosure, one of my companies got fined by OSHA at one point, & another was cited by TCEQ, so I know how it feels.

In summary, I learned first hand how incredibly difficult it is for small companies to manage EHS compliance due to a common lack of the critical expertise, time and resources that are needed to keep up, and how this situation then ends up exposing them to these potentially catastrophic risks that can literally destroy lives and businesses.

This later inspired me to found my 4th company, Berg Compliance Solutions in 2012, which is dedicated to helping other small businesses, and business owners, to manage EHS compliance and risk.

Education

BA, Philosophy, University of Colorado, Boulder, December, 1990.

Summary of Professional Experience & Qualifications:

30+ years serving the manufacturing & industrial services sectors
30+ years of sales and marketing experience
16+ years as small business owner & entrepreneur: Founded and operated 4 small businesses since 2003.

Environmental, Health & Safety Compliance & Program Related:

19 plus years of hazardous waste management including EPA, TCEQ & RCRA regulations
8 years of DOT/FMCSA compliance experience, including hazardous materials transportation
8 years of combined experience implementing and managing OSHA health and safety compliance programs for 2 high risk energy services businesses
Successfully implemented and gained ISO 9001 Quality Management
Certification and OHSAS 18001 (Occupational Health & Safety Advisory Service) Certification for wind energy maintenance business.

Regulatory Enforcement Related Experience:

Served as expert witness in criminal environmental compliance enforcement cases
Superfund-CERCLA
OSHA enforcement inspections, investigations and resolution in following industries: industrial services, manufacturing & construction.
TCEQ enforcement inspections, investigations and resolution in manufacturing.

OSHA Austin Area 2017 Fatality Report