Communication Tower Worker Deaths: Why Doesn’t OSHA Enforce Its Rules?

Because the fixed ladders where not the issue. A lot of the deaths were do to towers under repair. You have to leave the ladder to gain access to structural components to remove and replace them. Some of these death were do to them removing too many of the components before replacing some and the towers collapsed. Other deaths even though they had the equipment they did not tie off.

What is see as the problem is poor supervision. Or supervision that is allowing the workers to cut corners to save time and money.

I will also like to say that some of the work force base for jobs like this are thrill seekers. To many of them where is the thrill if you can't fall. As in any job you get comfortable in and you make mistakes.

Thanks, There are also rules for tie offs. Appreciate your take on the human thrill side of this.

Milo

IMHO The simplest thing is to treat a company like an individual. It is not the responsibility of OSHA to inspect all facilities before, during and after work is performed. However, if a fatality occurs and an after accident report finds pertinent non-compliance to any safety regulation then the company should be convicted of a manslaughter charge. Instead of jail time, all company profits are seized for the equivalent time. This is in addition to any civil liability determined by a wrongful death suit.

Before the deluge of nay sayers jump all over me, I know that this will never happen.

While I agree that companies/corporations should be held liable for acts of negligence, but attempting to seize profits for a period of time would be counterproductive.

Any corporation of company would simply dissolve the company if it failed to generate a profit - why do it? Asking or mandating a corporation to perform work for no profit only punishes the investors, which are most likely blameless.

This is why the corporate officers are held accountable in the legal system. However, there are limits to which corporate officers can be held liable.

Imagine how you would feel if your IRA or retirement suddenly took a hit due to one or more of the companies you have stock in had their profits seized.

My IRA is already diversified for when a corporate officer ruins a company to line their pocket. Why should a company be immune from retribution from an egregious safety violation that results in a death?

Again. Who are you punishing by confiscating a corporation's profit?

Certainly not the individuals who were responsible.

Ahem, a company should not be making a profit when a working employee dies due to unsafe practices. Individuals that violate company practices should be charged separately. A company with safety rules that are not enforced should risk losing what the company values, profit.

Fortunately, you are not a legislator.

What's next? Exterminate the human race for someone killing polar bears?

Wow, talk about hyperbolic absurdity.

This tangent is done.

What an interesting fantasy world you have. Our legal system does not care about collateral damage to people. (If one incident generated a hundred articles...) Our legal system worries about collateral damage to cronies making money. This is why my fantasy will never happen. Corporate profits are sacrosanct to the point that the loss of them cannot be even used as a leverage for deterrence against illegal acts by members of the corporation.

I'm with you...in a way.

I get tired of individuals being able to hide behind the corporations they work for.

If a worker dies due to negligence, is ordered to do something he shouldn't be doing, etc., I think we should be tracking down the individual(s) responsible, and holding them personally accountable...particularly if they, (as a person in authority), are acting against the rules of the corporation.

If the corporation itself has an unwritten policy of ignoring safety rules, and it can be proven, they should be put out of business, along with possible criminal prosecution of the people responsible.

Precisely my point. When individuals hide behind the corporation, then the corporation should take the hit. Once the corporation takes the hit, the investors may (in accord to their bylaws) exact retribution of individuals without the need for formal legal actions.

Remember also that corporations frequently fail to produce a profit while still operating and employing people. The most dramatic but not exclusive method is bankruptcy chapter 11.

One last piece of my fantasy was never clarified. I did not say the profits would be seized in perpetuity to become a government tax. I'm dreaming about a term punishment. The seized profits during this term can only be used by the injured party, their survivors and to achieve compliance with safety standards.

I'll go with the corporation taking the hit, as long as it is proven that they were knowingly doing something wrong, it comes from upper management, and the "fine" goes to the families of the victim(s), rather than into the government's coffers.

I feel the same about government itself. The further away from individual accountability we get, the more damage to our society.

We can't determine if the tower deaths were due to orders from the top, or a stupid move by the guys climbing the towers. I'd wager that the climbers themselves were cutting corners; and if that's the case, huge fines on the corporation make no sense. The big dogs can talk safety until they're blue in the face, but they aren't going to slow down a guy in the air that thinks he's part squirrel.

I can honestly say that I don't think any corporation is knowingly fudging safety. Considering that things are moving in the direction you're talking about, it would be suicide.

I'm gonna go out on a limb, and say that the safety drills, talks, speeches, etc., have become so ingrained in the corporate structure, that the workers have reached the point of actually resenting the "safety" crap.

Maybe the government wants to save us all...or maybe they're pretending to, to maintain power. Whatever the case, there are a lot of workers that don't like being talked to like a 3 year old, and they will intentionally break the rules when no one is looking, just for the hell of it.

No doubt there is injustice in the system. What system is pure?

The example you cited is totally a red herring, anyway.

However, the founding principle of our justice system does not endorse punishing innocents for the sake of a few guilty. This is also why the prosecution has to prove guilt rather than the defendants proving themselves innocent.

What you proposed and are proposing now is wrong by taking profits. If you find that kind of justice to your liking you can go to Venezuela, China, Russia, or any of the other virtual dictatorships in the world.

If you do not believe me, take up your argument with a judicial scholar and let me know how that works out.

This site has the details of these deaths....they maintain stats and provide excellent tower industry commentary.

One thing I noticed about US tower workers V tower workers elsewhere in the world is the lousy pay they receive in the US.....not much incentive for smarter (more careful?) workers and supervisors to get up the mast.

A tower worker in Oz makes a real good living and works in an OSHA compliant manner.

A tower worker here (Cambodia) get's paid less than in the US but compared to local wages gets paid very well. Dumb folk don't get hired for these jobs.

Pay peanuts get monkeys....if only. A monkey wouldn't be falling off the tower. Pay peanuts and even the monkeys don't want the job.....must be some desperate folk in the US.

I'm seeing your point here; but I think the real point, is that while up on a tower, (or anyplace else), workers don't give a rat's ass about OSHA compliance. Some would say that they're completely nuts.

Some jobs are just dangerous. In 2012, out of 130 million workers, 278 died from falls, with tower workers in the single digits.

https://www.osha.gov/oshstats/commonstats.html

This is nothing but more government stupidity.

Short of assigning an OSHA inspector to each tower worker, that actually climbs up with him and ensures compliance, this latest scheme is nothing but a way to increase fines and bully companies.

The end result?

Consumers will pay more money for cell phone plans. That's it.

What we really need to do, is eliminate the phrase, "If just one life is saved, it's worth it", from being ever used again. It is nothing but a way for government to garner more power, make everything more expensive, and separate us from our money and freedom, in the name of safety.

People die. People that aren't careful, die sooner. It's a fact of life that can't be changed.

Milo, having worked in the oilfield service industry where there were a number of falls from elevated work baskets I can tell you the biggest problem is the human failing to work safely. I would design fully OSHA compliant workbaskets and ladders with passive safety features, and fall arrest device tie off points built in, only to have the guy doing the job fail to tie off or leaving a trap door open and stepping backward into it because all of those things slow him down and he wants to get the job done and get the hell out of dodge just as soon as he can. and he convinces himself that he has done it a million times before without problem so all this OSHA bullcrap is just that. And these are senior guys in supervisory positions who have done the job for decades. They get jaded and sloppy and eventually it bites them or one of their employees in the ass. you can train and train and train these guys, but willful disregard of safety procedures is difficult to combat.

"you can train and train and train these guys, but willful disregard of safety procedures is difficult to combat." Just like this case...you can't fix stupid! :-(

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-palm-child-shooting-follo-20140303,0,1475228.story