The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has recently released its report on the fatal fall of a bridge worker from the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge last December. Subsequent to an “informal settlement agreement” dated June 7, Odyssey Contracting Corporation of Houston, Pa., has paid a penalty of $5,600 in response to a “serious” violation of safety regulations.

The original penalty of $7,000 was reduced by 20 percent when the company agreed to pay the penalty within 15 days.

The December 5, 2010, fall of 29-year-old Ercio Gasques from the suspension bridge connecting Deer Isle with Sedgwick saddened area residents, who responded with personal and financial support to his relatives in New Jersey. (See Island Ad-Vantages and The Weekly Packet issues of December 9 and 23, 2010.)

Stavros Semanderes, Odyssey’s president and chief executive, said in a telephone interview the fine involved compromise and was “justified, and not capricious in any way.” He called Gasques a “good worker” who had only been on the job about a month.

Gasques was not secured to “tie-off point”

As described in the OSHA citation, “…a painter removing an outrigger that once supported the safety net/containment system fell off the bridge and down approximately 38’ to the rocks below.” The employee was “on a walking/working surface…with an unprotected side or edge which is 6 feet (1.8 meters) or more above a lower level [and was] not protected from falling by use of guardrail systems, safety net systems or personal fall arrest systems.”

The OSHA report contains a four-page narrative summary of interviews conducted during the investigation, along with a history of previous safety problems with Odyssey, including two fatalities.

According to the narrative, Gasques, a journeyman painter identified as “EE1” in the report, was part of a crew preparing “to remove an outrigger used to support a safety net/containment system. [He] wore a MSA safety harness with a double leg 6’ lanyard in tandem with a 3’ deceleration lanyard attached to the dorsal D-ring.”

Gasques “climbed over the bridge rail to loosen the four ‘C’ clamps, securing the outrigger” to the I-beam, to prepare for a truck-mounted crane to lift the outrigger up and over the railing. A nearby co-worker was aware that Gasques had “climbed below and assumed he found a place to tie-off.”

While he was directing the lift truck to the area, the co-worker noticed that a “rope tied to the outrigger ‘took-off’ and then heard something hit the rocks below.” The report concludes that Gasques “did not secure himself to any tie-off points on [the] bridge or use any positioning devices while he climbed down below the bridge deck to release the outrigger.”

Ranking MDOT official documented safety violations

The OSHA narrative lists a documented history of safety procedures not being followed by Odyssey supervisors prior to this accident. Steve Harrington, a “collateral duty safety officer…received a safety citation for violating the fall protection requirement in 09/30/09…for not wearing his harness.”

Harrington “continued his negligent behavior into late May 2010 as witnessed by [Maine Department of Transportation project resident Timothy] Hebert, who “photographed Mr. Harrington wearing his harness without properly securing his leg straps while standing on the bridge rail and fairing.”

(The fairing is steel plating with the upper edge attached to the outside of the bridge railing, and the lower edge attached to the outside of the bridge deck. It is shaped as a sideways V to deflect wind above and below the bridge to minimize bridge shaking in high winds. See photo on page 1.)

As MDOT’s ranking official on site, Hebert followed up by issuing a stop-work order against Odyssey and insisted that Harrington be removed from the project.

A meeting was held on May 27, 2010, that included officials from MDOT and Odyssey. Hebert and his supervisor, MDOT project manager Devin Anderson, confronted Semanderes regarding their safety concerns. (Semanderes and his wife own 80 percent of Odyssey.)

Semanderes “defended his crew from safety allegations, especially Mr. Harrington’s conduct,” but finally yielded to pressure to remove Harrington from the project, according to the narrative.

Semanderes told Penobscot Bay Press that Harrington was very safety conscious and that the claims against him were “bogus.”

“I feel very strongly if Steve Harrington [had not been removed as] superintendent, this would have never happened, because [the job] would have been finished much sooner,” and Gasques would never have been on the project, Semanderes said. Harrington would have personally supervised the de-rigging process, Semanderes said.

Semanderes remained on site as project superintendent, except for brief trips to other worksites, while a replacement for Harrington was being found.

The OSHA narrative continues: “On 06/08[10], Mr. Hebert made his inspection rounds and found Mr. Semanderes standing on the rail and fairing without fall protection. He tried to justify to Mr. Hebert that it was only 5’ to the bridge deck but neglected to acknowledge the distance between the fairing and the water below was [approximately] 50’. Mr. Hebert took a photo of Mr. Semanderes on the fairing.”

Semanderes told Penobscot Bay Press that he was in no danger when Hebert saw him on the fairing.

The report noted that as more workers were added to the project during the summer season, the number of fall protection citations “more than doubled from two to five as Mr. Hebert became more adamant about the use of fall protection.”

The history section of the OSHA report says that on October 1, 2009, in Pennsylvania, an Odyssey painter doing abrasive blasting died after falling 124 feet. “The wire rope suspending the scaffold failed and the painter [had] not attach[ed] his fall protection to an independent vertical lifeline.”

Another Odyssey fatality occurred on May 31, 1991, in Maryland. “A painter stepped off a 2’ wide aluminum scaffold that did not have a separate safety cable, no handrails, no safety nets, or any other form of fall protection.”

Harrington was not on the other two projects where fatalities occurred, Semanderes told Penobscot Bay Press. Both of these also involved new employees and were the only other ones in the 35-year history of the company, Semanderes said.

The OSHA report on the Deer Isle bridge accident includes a February 15, 2011, memo on safety policy signed by Semanderes. The memo reads in part: “On our projects, rigging and de-rigging are the two operations which are most dangerous and require extra special attention by qualified workers.

“From this point forward, it shall be the policy that the crew leader on the rigging or de-rigging crew must be a steady Odyssey employee with at least one season of experience working with Odyssey on bridges doing rigging work.”

Odyssey was doing the work under a contract for $9.3 with the

. The project started in May 2009, and was to have been completed by November 12, 2010. Poor weather and other problems led to the contract being extended to spring 2011.