No life jackets among safety fails when Homestead man died on Florida Keys job, OSHA says
An overloaded crane, unqualified crane operator and no life jackets led to a Homestead man’s drowning death after a Florida Keys crane collapse, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said.
The Citation and Notification of Penalty from OSHA accuses Key Largo’s Upper Keys Marine Construction of those and other safety violations, worth $92,191 in proposed fines, in the March 21 death of employee Jose Eduardo Reyes Ponce.
Upper Keys Marine Construction, registered as UKMC, LLC, in state records with Michael Jones as the registered agent based in company offices, didn’t return phone messages or an email from the Miami Herald.
READ MORE: Homestead man dies after crane falls off barge in the Florida Keys
OSHA’s just-the-facts description of what happened at 59 Mutiny Place around 3:30 p.m. March 21 says Reyes “was disconnecting a chain from the pile for the pile driving operation that used a crawler crane with a dropped hammer in a lead, operated from a barge. He climbed the lead steps and was supposed to be moved by the crane from the barge to the hole where the pile would be released from the chains (his job) and be hammered.
“On the trajectory of swinging the boom, the crane tracks were raising up and the crane flipped over the water,” OSHA said. “The pile driving equipment, where [Reyes] was holding himself, dropped into the water with him. He was struck, trapped, and sunken to the bottom of the sea by the pile driving equipment. The lead and the dropped hammer trapped part of his leg and feet. It was not possible for him to release himself. [Reyes] was killed due to drowning.”
Reyes was 29 years old.
The following are some of the employee-endangering violations the U.S. Department of Labor’s workplace safety division says it found during its investigation:
▪ “Employees were exposed to drowning hazards when conducting pile driving operations from a boat dock without being protected with U.S. Coast Guard-approved work and/or buoyant vests.”
▪ “A lifesaving skiff was not immediately available during offshore pile driving operations.”
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▪ UKMC didn’t “comply with the crane manufacturer’s procedures” it didn’t have a gantry properly used to support the boom’s load capacity.
▪ “Employees were exposed to drowning, struck-by, and caught-between hazards when a crawler crane tipped over due to the applied load exceeding the listed load capacity of the equipment.”
▪ UKMC was “conducting pile driving operations with a crane operator that was not certified to operate the equipment.”
▪ The “crawler crane on a barge was not physically attached to it while the equipment was being used to conduct pile driving operations.”
▪ Reyes “was exposed to fall and drowning hazards while ‘riding the load’ that was attached to the boom of the crane during pile driving operations.”
OSHA Area Office Director Conell Eastmond said: “This tragedy was completely preventable if the company had met its responsibility and followed federal requirements. Because of its negligence, a young man needlessly lost his life, and his loved ones are now left to grieve their loss.”
You can report workplace safety problems to OSHA either online, calling 800-321-6742 (OSHA) or by visiting the nearest OSHA office.
