Tuesday, February 16, 1999
Contractor cited for safety violations
CONSTRUCTION: Query on worker’s death ends with fines to
company
By Lawrence Ferchaw
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
After nearly six months of investigation, the California
Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal-OSHA) has concluded
its inquiry into the death of a construction worker at the De Neve
Plaza work site, assessing fines of over $5,000 for the worker’s
employer.
Jason Drass, 19, was working at the site on the morning of Aug.
24, 1998. While workers were filling a dump truck with dirt, Drass
was asked to clean off some of the dirt that had landed on top of
the fender of one of the dump trucks.
As Drass walked near a truck, the driver did not see him and
began to move his vehicle, which struck Drass, according to Dean
Fryer, a spokesman for Cal-OSHA.
"The truck began moving forward and rolled over the decedent
(Drass), thus causing multiple traumatic crushing injuries," the
citation stated.
Sharma General Engineering, Drass’ employer, was cited for
requiring or permitting an employee to work in an unsafe area and
not having a system of traffic control in place to prevent the
hazard.
The third citation was for Drass not wearing a fluorescent vest
to make him more visible to the other employees who were operating
the equipment.
Cal-OSHA determined that asking Drass to remove the dirt was
putting him at risk without adequate protection while he was
walking to the truck.
"Traffic controls were not provided while the decedent was
cleaning dirt that was spilled on the right, front fender of the
rear trailer of the double bottom haulage dump truck," the citation
stated.
A representative from Sharma Engineering said his company had
not yet received the citation, and therefore declined to
comment.
The citation by Cal-OSHA is not an assessment of liability,
though.
"We’re looking for any violations of state safety and health
codes," Fryer said. "If the employer was found to be in violation
of a code, then they would be issued a citation."
All three of the citations were "serious" violations, which
means that the employer should have known that the situation
existed and could have made corrections, said Fryer.
The issuance of citations is not the final step in the process.
There is a lengthy appeals process, and Sharma can eventually
appeal to an administrative law judge and present evidence which
may not have been looked at by investigators. The company has 15
days from the receipt of the citation to appeal.
UCLA’s own office of Environmental Health and Safety and the
university police responded to the accident the day it occurred.
UCPD passed along its findings to Cal-OSHA, but the Office of
Environmental Health and Safety did not investigate because Drass
was an employee of Sharma, not the university, according to Rich
Greenwood, director for that office.
The project manager for the university, who had not yet seen the
citation, declined to comment on the findings of the investigation,
citing the possibility of litigation by Drass’ family.
"It seems like we always get sued," Greenwood said, adding that
the university should not be held responsible because Drass was not
a UCLA employee.
Sharma was the subcontractor in charge of removing dirt from the
site before actual construction could begin. They are scheduled to
return to the work site toward the end of the project for some
landscape work.
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