Builder pays fine in Echelon death

The construction firm sanctioned and fined for safety violations that allegedly killed a carpenter on the Echelon project paid a disputed $11,000 fine on Tuesday that was due Monday to the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Marnell Corrao Associates sent a letter Sept. 30 protesting NOSHA's finding that safety violations and haste led to the death in June on the $4.8 billion project on the Strip.

The company's letter emphasized that its objection was not to the fine but to the "certificate of abatement" that was also due Monday. The company didn't want to certify it had abated the conditions NOSHA blamed for the death, because Marnell Corrao disputes that some of the conditions existed.

Despite its protest, Marnell Corrao signed the certificate last week, said Elisabeth Shurtleff, public information officer for the Department of Business and Industry, of which NOSHA is part. On Tuesday, Marnell Corrao's attorney, Brad Kerby, said that while Marnell Corrao still disagrees with the findings, there is no provision by which it can seek to have them overturned because it accidentally missed a Sept. 19 administrative deadline to initiate an appeal.

No employee of NOSHA was available for comment because of a longstanding blanket order by L. Tom Czehowski, chief administrative officer of NOSHA, that no member of his agency will speak to media, Shurtleff said.

Lyndal Bates, 49, of Tempe, Ariz., was dismantling scaffolding on June 16 when he made the mistake of fastening his safety harness to one of the very pieces he was going to remove. When Bates tossed that heavy piece to the ground, it pulled him off the planks where he was standing, and he landed on his head 13 feet below. Bates died at the scene.

The NOSHA "citation and notification of penalty" issued Aug. 26 said the foreman over Bates "was not trained on safe work practices and avoidance of unsafe conditions during dismantling," and was unfamiliar with guidelines issued by industry experts. "The foreman supervised the dismantling of frame shoring for one month only and instructed workers to throw the shoring components to the ground, to work alone, and rushed them to hurry up."

Other documents provided to the Review-Journal by NOSHA said that standard safety practice calls for men to work in pairs and lower the frame components with rope, rather than throwing them down as they were ordered to do, and that Bates' fellow workers told NOSHA investigators they had worked in pairs and used ropes until ordered to do otherwise.

The citation also said "nine of ten employees, involved in dismantling of frame shoring system towers and exposed to fall hazards, were not trained by a competent person in the procedures to be followed to minimize these hazards."

Bates had attended fall protection training, the investigators said, but written records failed to identify other employees trained, the dates of training, or the signature of the person who trained Bates or others.

Earlier, Marnell Corrao had sent a notice of intent to contest the citations and penalties ordered by NOSHA, but failed to deliver it by a Sept. 19 administrative deadline, so NOSHA has contended the findings must stand.

NOSHA called failures to conduct and document safety training "serious" violations and ordered fines totaling $10,000. The remaining $1,000 fine was for what NOSHA called a "regulatory" violation of the Nevada statute prohibiting dismantling or removing equipment that was involved in a serious workplace accident, before NOSHA has investigated the scene.

At Echelon, "employees were directed by employer representatives to 'clean up the area' and removed dismantled joists, A-frames, braces, screw jacks around (the injured Bates) before the investigation began."

Marnell Corrao's correspondence with NOSHA asserts that the construction firm cooperated fully in the investigation and documented that it was untrue "nine of ten employees" were untrained in safety procedures. The Sept. 30 letter claims that all employees assigned to dismantle such scaffolding "are and were trained" in the way NOSHA said they should have been. It added that Marnell Corrao will never order the dismantling of an accident scene, nor did its employees dismantle the June accident scene except to remove "a single A-frame attached by lanyard to the victim, which removal was for the sole purpose of rendering aid."

Due to economic conditions, Boyd Gaming Corp. suspended construction on the Echelon project in August, saying it hopes to resume sometime next year. Plans call for building five separate hotels on the site.

Contact A.D. Hopkins at ahopkins@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0270.