Las Vegas Sun

Being in the position that I am in, I deal with several regulatory agencies on a daily basis. The Sun did a great article on the death(s) of the workers in Vegas- my condolences to the families, but a few might want to fully understand what really goes on in building a building or other construction project. I don't see OSHA saving face- blame the government for creating a rule that is very easy to beat. If a violation of the Standard was the result of an injury or death of a worker then the blame really needs to go to the one who created the violation, sometimes it is not the Big Company that did the bad deed, but that of the worker who was taking a short cut- he was in a hurry to get a boring task done, and did not consider the future outcome. In some instances we call this an independent employee act, and yet we will find at fault the employer for this wrong doing. Personally, the safety of any person begins right there with the employee, if they are not capable of doing the task the right way, then maybe we as a society need to retrain the worker the right way without 'shortcuts'. Not one person has the right to decide the life or fate of another and in our world of construction we place a lot of trust in the ability of the worker, especially one who comes claiming to have the knowledge and experience, make them prove it.

OSHA, whether they be state or Fed can only do so much. The penalty phase in my opinion is too light- the dollar factor needs to be redefined, in a situation as such the fines should begin at $100,000.00 and work up IF the negligence is found to be the result of the contractors lack of several items that created the fatality. We work the system that WE put in place- thank US for how we can beat that system.

Sadly, we can only attempt to resolve the issue by common knowledge- fix it after it happens has been the American way for a 'few' decades. If we could only see into the future- it would never happen in the first place.