To Report Unsafe Working Conditions or Safety & Health Violations
Record Keeping Training Presentations
New York City construction industry is worked together to improve safety and health conditions. To help this movement there are a few big organizations involved such as: The Department of Buildings, OSHA,Fire Department of New York, Port Authority, Insurance companies, Safety companies, Lawyers, Business owners, Various Unions and the BTEA. (Business Trade Employers Association)
We are all collaborating together to reduce or prevent worker injury and employees aware of hazards.
Here are some notes I found interested and want to share with you:
- 975,000 Buildings in NYC
- 1200 OSHA Inspectors
We have had Six (6) fatalities in 2011 down one from last year and down 27 from 2008, but the results may be because of the downturn in the economy.
- Five (5) out of the 6 fatalities were fall related.
- One (1) out of the 6 fatalities was due to a collapse
- Five of the fatalities were all in the last quarter.
- Fatalities were in the following locations 3 in Manhattan, 2 Queens, 1 Brooklyn
- 33% of the fatalities may have been due to language barriers.
- 33% of the fatalities were on Non Union projects.
In 2011 OSHA has written up 40% less violations in NYC since 2010
1657 violations from 803 inspections
It seems that most accidents pertaining to worker fell with that being said we do need to enforce tie offs, and slab edge protection.
Bob Kulick Regional Administrator for OSHA
quoted “falls are preventable”
8000 people die each year and 137,000 are hurt on the job. Just like seat belts were a culture change fall protection is becoming a culture change.
2 new rules added to OSHA this year are Back up accidents(ex. forklifts) and Concrete post tention. OSHA is doing extensive research on hearing loss and amputations in 2012
Robert LiMandri NYC Commissioner DOB
quoted “safe sites are good for business”
Cocoons in NYC are changing the industry.They make people feel safe.
He is also excited for future Modular construction.
DOB has implemented the “get it done” program internally. This is a program having all the right people in the room to get permits processed. This has sped up the process by 52%
Commissioner was also excited to speak about the new online permit process.
The DOB will be using BIM modeling for safety plans.
He also said that we are on an upward trend with demo permits up 6%
Salvatore Cassano FDNY Commissioner
quoted” since 9/11 construction trade professionals & the fire department are forever linked”
He is proud to say that 15% less life lose since the previous year
He was also happy to say that the average response time in NYC is 4:01
They received 1,000,000 calls in 2010
Safety is at their forefront and they have implemented programs such as Risk Vs Reward, which is a program training for driving to a call. The program is to build awareness to both firefighters and citizens and as to date the program has been a success with reduction in accidents by 31%
The commissioner then proceeded to hand out fire inspector certificates.
The rest of the day was just as informative.
Panel # 2 consisted of
Nancy Clark-NYC Department of Health
Kay G- OSHA Manhattan area director
Michael Alacha – Assistant Commissioner for engineering & emergency DOB
We then broke up into seminars.
the options were
Criminal Liability for NY safety
CDA Inspections
FDNY Special operations.
I sat in on the first two and could honestly say I brought back some good info for the company.
Safety is a shared responsibility from ownership to employee, so its critical to preplan your work and to anticipate hazards. We need to provide the proper training in the proper language to the untrained and make sure that all PPE is being used correctly.
These seminars are extremely important if you are in the industry.I would recommend this once a year seminar to all construction business owners, and safety personnel.
