Construction company fined $284,000 after deadly fall

A Bellingham, Washington, construction company is facing $284,000 in fines for not ensuring safeguards were in place to keep workers from falling off the Beverly Railroad bridge spanning the Columbia River in Vantage, Washington, the Washington Department of Labor and Industries announced Thursday.

A 39-year-old man fell 60 feet from the bridge deck to the ground below in August 2021 while laying concrete curing blankets as part of a bridge restoration project, according to the department, which cited Boss Construction Inc. with two egregious serious willful violations for not ensuring workers were using fall protection.

State inspectors determined that many of the workers did not use fall protection on the day of the incident and on multiple other days, according to the department.

“Managers and a foreman were working side-by-side with workers — none of them wearing fall protection,” Craig Blackwood, L&I’s assistant director for the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, said in a statement. “That tells us the employer knowingly allowed employees to work on the bridge without using the required safety equipment.”

Multiple employee interviews corroborated the lack of fall protection during the project and spoke to a lack of safety enforcement leading up to the fatal fall.

L&I also cited Boss Construction for not having a rescue boat immediately available and not having ring buoys with ropes or life vests that are required for workers not using fall protection while working over water.