BEctel is reviewing his security program after an internal investigation into the triple night mortality in a Texas LNG project in April, where three employees fell to his death, announced the company last week.
In this accident, Bechtel claims that the five -member crew included relatively newcomers who did not have a necessary training in the formwork jump system they used and that the three dead had not managed to link their safety harnesses. The company also said that it could not advise new hires in a system of colleagues, as required by its own policy.
New security measures will be applied to the formwork jump and everything is working in Heights, said Bechtel.
According to his new rules, Bechtel Triple will verify that support connections are made correctly before jumping concrete formulas. The company said that an inappropriate connection triggered the sudden loss of support and inclination of the work platform for the formwork of the Texas project.
But a key part of the company’s revelations involves the training of staff and culture of the company that seemed to occur.
From now on, the company said, it will also ensure that temporary work platforms are managed in the same way as traditional scaffolds and add training at the level of Capatàs, supervision of security staff and acclaimed procedures on the links to existing security protocols.
The accident involved relatively recent hires that worked at night, which had successfully completed eight previous steps of formwork jump. But an experienced foreman and the hand of the crew had been called to help them elsewhere just before the accident, said Bechtel.
Although they had been given training in fall protection, the three workers who died “seemed to have no fall arrest” linked to “an approved anchor point,” says Bechtel.
He was killed in the accident, Felix Jose Lopez, 42; Felipe Mendez, 25; and Reginald Magee, 41. López and Mendez declared themselves dead at the scene. Magee was taken to a local hospital where he died from his injuries. Two other workers injured in the accident were treated and they are expected to be completely recovered, according to authorities.
The answers changed to the unusual release of a Bechtel internal report before the health and safety research results of the health administration became public. A safety professional said that the information could be of great value to alerting other employers to build possible dangers.
Travis Livermore, a Dallas -based lawyer to Marshall Presley & Pipal, congratulated the publication of the information.
“Bechtel is integrating the work authority into his routine, so there would be no stigma associated with exercise, and so he is exercised, not only in the face of immediate danger, but also as a safeguard,” he said.
The contractor has also been “positioned” to negotiate final potential citations of the OSHA, says Livermore, as contractors need to inform customers and potential clients.
Legal implications
Livermore claims that in these negotiations an entrepreneur can defend himself, saying that a mortality was the result of poor employee conduct. This only works if the employer can show that he had established the rules of work, the communications, took steps to find violations and enforce the rules.
It’s not clear what Bechtel wants to do. But “in order to affirm the defense, the businessman must adopt an approach to the incident,” says Livermore.
However, other aspects of Bechtel’s report promoted to My fault. The contractor said, for example, that the crew had no training for the system used that night.
“”The five members of the crew were recent hires that, at the time of the hiring, had a previous experience limited or not in repositioning the feces jumping, ” Bechtel’s report stated. “Although they had completed our general drop protection training and received training and experience at work and experiencing the jump formulas during the shifts before the incident, they had not received the 30 -minute classroom training prepared for supervision for the formwork jump system they used.”
The future high -risk work will be done during the day, as far as possible, Bechtel pledged.
Recognizing another deficiency, Bechtel said that it will now automatically abstain the staff who violate the critical rules of the company’s life, including the protection of falls, but will suspend the discipline if the rape is “identified and corrected within the crew.” If not, the violations will be specific, including the possible completion.
Bracket insured inappropriately
In his investigation, Bechtel says, an inappropriate support connection between the climbing form and a concrete depot was built in the accident. The work was part of a LNG GNL export terminal project estimated in Port Arthur, Texas.
The results of the report were part of a larger comment on the crash of Craig Albert, corporate president of Bechthel and Paul Marsden, president of his energy unit. Since the accident, Bechtel’s officials have said they were especially affected by the tragedy and reflected deeply.
“The goal of sharing our findings is to promote transparency, accountability and learning, helping Bechtel – and the broadest industry – to provide risks and act in a proactive manner in security,” the two men wrote.
The information also contained a resignation, stating that the report “will not assign legal liability or represent final conclusions” that may evolve after more hand -data or “third party reports”.
