NC hits Raleigh contractor with maximum fine after worker’s fatal fall at Wolfspeed

Brian Gordon
·2 min read
6
An American flag flies above Wolfspeed prior to a visit by President Joe Biden on Tuesday, March 28, 2023, in Durham, N.C.

The North Carolina Department of Labor has fined the Raleigh-based Southern Industrial Constructors Inc. $20,825 for violating a pair of workplace safety rules in connection to the July 17 accident that killed an iron welder at the Durham headquarters of the semiconductor manufacturer Wolfspeed.

The victim, 51-year-old Ricardo Aguilar Aleman, was working at the site as a contract worker when he fell from the second story of a building on Wolfspeed’s campus near Research Triangle Park. According to his death certificate, Aguilar Aleman suffered “multiple blunt force injuries of head and spine,” and died shortly after noon the next day at Duke University Hospital.

NCDOL investigators visited the headquarters the day after the fall. The department’s nearly five-month investigation found Southern Industrial had used plywood to cover a roughly 4-by-4-foot hole that was 14 feet above a concrete floor. This cover was not secure, investigators found, and Aguilar Aleman fell through.

For failing to secure the elevated hole, the state fined Southern Industrial $15,625, the maximum amount by law for a serious violation. NCDOL also levied a $5,200 fine because it found Southern Industrial failed to provide employees with a stairway or ladder that covered the entire distance from the ground to the second-floor area.

“The penalties are in no way designed to make up for the loss of life,” NCDOL spokesperson Erin Wilson said in a statement Tuesday.

In North Carolina, employers have up to 15 business day to either formally appeal their citations, request informal conferences with the state, or pay the penalties. The state may then change its citation ruling or reach a settlement agreement with the company.

The News & Observer reached out to Southern Industrial for comment on the state’s findings. “We have no comment at this time,” a company spokesperson said.

Aguilar Aleman’s death was the second fatal incident at the Wolfspeed headquarters in the past 16 months. In October 2022, a Wolfspeed electrician named Vincent Farrell died after contacting a live wire.

The state department of labor cited Wolfspeed for two safety violations in relation to the death, and Wolfspeed informed NCDOL it has since adjusted its safety protocols.

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