As stimulus projects break ground, OSHA tries new inspection routine to limit construction accidents

With the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 passed and some of the first stimulus-funded construction projects underway, several local OSHA offices have devised a new system to inspect construction sites in an effort to reduce construction accidents, Occupational Health and Safety reports.


Though not yet implemented in New York, construction accident lawyers in our area should still take note as there is no reason OSHA's new system could not see widespread use.


Only implemented in Kansas and Missouri so far, the new inspection protocol examines the practices of every employer at a particular construction site, moving the inspection system from one based on inspecting individual employers to one based on inspecting sites.


For New York construction accident lawyers, this approach should seem far more logical. With the usual abundance of different employers collaborating at a construction site, an inspection of the safety practices of one or even a handful of employers can be a poor indication of the overall safety of a site. Inspecting the safety of the entire site at once - scrutinizing the safety of every employer doing work at the site - seems far more likely to both encourage safe practices and catch any violations that occur during construction work.

Moreover, for OSHA it seems a far easier way to organize its inspections of businesses involved in construction work. Rather than visiting each of a company's work sites over the course of a company's inspection (which could lead to multiple visits to each work site as OSHA investigates multiple companies), OSHA will visit each site one time and issue violations as it finds them.

New York City construction accident lawyers have good reason to pay attention to Kansas and Missouri in the coming months. If these new inspection protocols prove effective, OSHA should expand them to cover the entire country.


[Occupational Health and Safety]