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A Honolulu construction company agreed to pay $37,825 in fines as part of a settlement of a case in which a worker fell 21 feet to his death at a job site, state officials said today.
An investigation by the Hawaii Occupational Safety and Health Division found that employees of Landmark Pacific Builders Inc. failed to install and use “fall protection systems” while working on the roof of a two-story house being renovated, according to a news release from the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. The fatal accident occurred Oct. 3., 2011.
“One of the most common citations issued by HIOSH involved fall protection,” said acting HIOSH Administrator Doreen Miyaki. “Unfortunately, failing to provide fall protection systems and training is consistently the leading cause of preventable workplace fatalities in Hawaii,” she said.
Among the citations issued against Landmark Pacific Builders were failure to ensure that supervisors understood their responsibility for the safety and health of workers, failure to provide adequate fall protection training to its employees, and failure to install and use fall protection systems when employees were exposed to fall hazards “6 feet or more above lower levels.”
