1. A painter for Tower Maintenance Corp. fell 70 feet from an electrical transmission tower and died after contacting a live power line while painting. During the OSHA investigation, it was revealed that employees had complained about lack of proper fall protection equipment and that a similar fatality had occurred two years prior at another worksite. 2. During litigation, more facts emerged showing that employees had requested new fall protection equipment before the accident but were denied and directed to work without any protection. The company's project director had a history of OSHA violations for inadequate fall protection at a previous company. 3. Based on these new facts, an administrative law judge upheld the willful classification of the fall protection violation and increased the penalty

1. Your Day In Court Does Not Always
Work Out!
June 2,2016
As first publishedin IndustrialSafety & Hygiene News
A New York-area employerwho contested the violations cited against his companyby OSHAaftera worker’s fatalfall
nowfaces considerably higherfines thanoriginally proposed – dueto what came to light during the litigation.
A 70' foot fall
The case stemmed froma 2012 incident in which a painterforTowerMaintenance Corp.,working at a height of
approximately 70 feet, inadvertently contactedan energized powerline and fell from the tower,striking a second
employee painting on the towerbelow.The secondemployee fellfromthe towerabout 40feet to the ground.The

2. employee who contactedthe powerline suffered fatalinjuries and the second employee survivedthe fall,but suffered
multiple serious injuries.
In 2010, anotheremployee ofthe Sea Cliff, New York-based company was killed in a similar incident at a Pennsylvania
worksite.
Could feel their hair stand up from electricity
An OSHA investigation ofthe 2012 incident found TowerMaintenanceemployees were repaintinga series ofelectric
transmissiontowerssupporting high-voltage powerlines.The difficult work required employees to climb the towers,
which are over100 feet tall, and apply paint to the towers'surfaces as they climbed.Employees told inspectors that they
worked so close to the energized powerlines that theycould feel the hairon theirskin standup.Despitethe extreme and
obvioushazardsofthe work,TowerMaintenance refusedto provide the employees with functional fall
protection equipmentand failed to provide the employees with any safetytraining.
Afterits investigation,the agency issuedthree citations,includingone repeat violationforthe employer's failure to
provide employeeswith functionalfall protectionequipment,onerepeat violation forthe employer's failure to provide
training,and one seriousviolation forpermitting unqualified employees to workin close proximity to energized electric
lines.OSHA proposed a totalpenalty of$35,000 for the violations.
New information emerged in court
During litigation,additionalfacts came to light.SeveralTowerMaintenance employees hadrequestednewfall protection
equipment priorto the fatalincident but the companydeniedthe requests,instead directingpainters to use the faulty
equipment orto work with no fall protection at all.Additionally,PeterVlahopoulos,the company's project directorand the
husbandofthe company's owner,previously ownedan industrialpainting company that accumulatednumerous OSHA
citations related to inadequate fallprotection.
Based on these newly discoveredfacts,an administrativelawjudge forthe independentOccupationalSafety andHealth
Review Commission affirmed the recommendation by theU.S.Secretary ofLaborsecretary argued that thefall protection
violation deserveda "willful" classification andthe maximum statutory penaltyof$70,000.
All co. supervisors knew about safety violations
The judge's decision stated that TowerMaintenance hadheightened awareness ofOSHA's fall protectionrequirements and
was "plainly indifferent to the safetyofits painters." The record established that thecompany "systematically sentpainters
up towers" without the required trainingorfall protection equipmentdespite a similar fall fatality less than two yearsprior.
The judge also found that allofTowerMaintenance's supervisors knowingly permittedthe painters to workunderthese
unsafe conditions.The decision alsoheld thatTowerMaintenance failed to train orqualify its employees to performwork
nearenergized electric powerlines.The judge assesseda totalpenaltyof$91,000 for the three violations -$56,000 more
than OSHA initially proposed.

3. "TowerMaintenance's negligencecontributeddirectly to this preventable tragedy.The company routinely exposed
workers to falls and electricaldangers without the properfallprotection andtraining,despite the fact a similar fatality
occurred less than two years prior," said Robert Kulick,administratorofOSHA's NewYork Region."The judge's decision
sendsan important message to employers:OSHA will hold companies thatfailto protect employees accountable."