Plastering firm fined for safety shortfalls after worker’s death
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A U.S. District judge has ordered Design Plastering West L.L.C. to pay $250,000 in criminal and civil penalties after an employee suffered a fatal fall at an apartment complex in Dallas.
On May 14, 2015, Jorge Carrion Torres died after a fall from a third-story balcony as he was applying stucco underlayment to balcony walls during construction on the exterior of an apartment complex without fall protection, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which cited the company for willfully failing to install scaffolding and provide workers with personal fall protection. In May 2018, Design Plastering West pleaded guilty to the willful citation on fall protection.
U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade in Dallas ordered the company to pay a $150,000 criminal fine, a $100,000 civil penalty, admit to eight willful violations and undergo monitoring by OSHA for a probationary period of four years, according to court documents and an OSHA statement published Wednesday.
The criminal prosecution and sentencing was the result of a collaboration between OSHA, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of the Solicitor and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, according to OSHA’s statement. The charges and plea agreement were filed with the court on May 24, according to court documents.
“This company failed to comply with well-known safety requirements,” Eric Harbin, OSHA’s Dallas region acting regional administrator, said in the statement. “This sentence should serve as a reminder that employers can be held criminally responsible for failing to protect their workers’ safety.”
Attorneys for the company could not be immediately reached for comment.
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