Trinidad & Tobago Safety Blog

Inspector Arrested in Crane Collapse By KAREN MATTHEWS,AP Posted: 2008-03-21 09:42:34 NEW YORK (March 21) - Inspectors began rechecking dozens of construction cranes after one of their colleagues was accused of lying about examining a crane that collapsed 11 days later, killing seven people.

Edward Marquette, 46, was arrested on charges of falsifying business records and offering a false instrument for filing, buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster said Thursday.

The accident occurred Saturday, when a 20-story crane broke away from an apartment tower under construction in a dense midtown Manhattan neighborhood. The crane toppled over, killing six construction workers and a visitor in town for St. Patrick’s Day.

A complaint about the crane was logged March 4 to a city hot line, officials said, and Marquette said he inspected it. It was later determined he had not.

“We will not tolerate this kind of behavior at the Department of Buildings,” Lancaster said at a news conference Thursday. “I do not and will not tolerate any misconduct in my department.”

She said it is very unlikely that a March 4 inspection would have prevented the accident because parts of the crane that failed 11 days later were not on site then. The crane was inspected the day before the collapse, she said.

In addition to suspending Marquette, Lancaster ordered an immediate inspection of all cranes he had checked over the last six months. The Department of Buildings said Marquette conducted 423 inspections at 76 constructions sites, mostly in Manhattan, during that period.

Marquette, who earns $52,283 a year as an inspector in the department’s division of cranes and derricks, was arrested Wednesday night, said Barbara Thompson, spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney.

He said nothing during his arraignment Thursday in state Supreme Court and was released without bail. If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison. His lawyer, Kate Moguletscu, had no comment.

The crane collapse created a blocklong swath of destruction not far the United Nations, pulverizing a four-story brownstone and damaging at least seven other buildings.

The gigantic piece of machinery fell over when a 6-ton steel collar used to secure the crane to the building came loose, plunging into another collar that acted as an anchor. Without that support, the spindly structure tumbled with terrifying force.

Neighborhood residents had complained for weeks that the crane didn’t appear safe. Bruce Silberblatt, a retired contractor who called in the March 4 complaint, said he was stunned by the arrest.

“My first reaction was astonishment. My second reaction is anger that a person would have the gall to do this,” said Silberblatt, who is also vice president of the Turtle Bay Neighborhood Association.

City officials would not discuss why Marquette failed to do the inspection.

Investigators first interviewed him Sunday and got a copy of his route sheet. He told them that he had conducted the March 4 inspection and that it revealed no problems with the crane.

Marquette was also listed in city records as having responded to a Jan. 22 complaint by another caller who complained about the safety of workers assembling the crane. Marquette said in his report, filed two days later, that he examined the crane and found no violation.

Other safety complaints were called in by neighbors Jan. 10 and Feb. 11, according to city records.

The contractor, Reliance Construction Group owner Stephen Kaplan, declined to comment on the arrest and referred inquiries to a company spokesman, who did not immediately return a phone message.

A publicist for the East 51st Development Company, which owns the site, said the developers had no comment.

Residents said they weren’t surprised by the arrest.

“It makes me very suspicious of the whole situation. I’d like to feel that it’s safe to live in this neighborhood with all the construction going on,” Sandra Graham said. “If he’s been arrested, I think he should be made an example of.”

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

2008-03-21 06:58:42

 Trinidad Express 17th January 2008

A 21-year-old man suffered burns about his body following an explosion while working on an incinerator at the Labidco Estate, La Brea, yesterday.

Keon Justin was listed in a stable condition at the San Fernando General Hospital last evening. He is employed with Kaizen Environmental Services’ Waste Services Department. The company was contracted to do maintenance work at the Labidco Estate, Justin said.

“I was assigned to assist an operator to place waste into the incinerator. While I was doing my job something exploded and my arms burst into flames. I tried to take off my coverall, but it was stuck to my body. The flames started to move up my body and I began running to the emergency shower, but some of my colleagues got to me and beat out the flames.”

The incident occurred around 5.45 a.m.

Justin said he believes a flammable object triggered the blaze. He suffered burns on his right arm, chest, neck and face. He has been employed with the company for 18 months.

Justin said a Health, Safety and Environment officer attached to the company visited him at the hospital and asked questions about the incident. “But no top officials from the company came. I am very disappointed about that,” he said.

Crane incident Good presentation on crane accident

A 15-YEAR-OLD schoolgirl was electrocuted yesterday at her Beetham Gardens home.

She was the second teenager to be electrocuted in a week. Fourteen-year-old Rishi Dhanraj of Penal was killed last Wednesday when he stepped into a pond with a live wire to retrieve his dead goat.

Natasha Smith, 15, should have been at school at the time of the incident but flooding caused by yesterday’s torrential downpour at the Barataria Senior Comprehensive forced school officials to cancel classes and so Smith got home early.

When the Express visited the teen’s 22nd Street home yesterday, her mother, Deborah Mohammed, said Smith was at the back of the house and had just hand-washed a gold and white dress when tragedy struck. She was preparing to head into Port of Spain to do some shopping with her cousin.

The family believe that after washing the garment, Smith picked up the extension cord to plug in the washing machine to spin-dry the dress.

With the cord held below her arm, she plugged it into the socket, sending jolts of electricity coursing through her body. She died on the spot.

Her 16-year-old cousin, Vesta Gomez, later found her on the ground next to the washing machine. “I thought she was playing, but then I got frighten and called the neighbour,” Gomez recalled.

Smith’s body was later removed to the Port of Spain mortuary.

Describing her daughter, Mohammed said, “She was a nice girl. She was the kind of girl who loved to laugh. I never had any problems with her.”

Besson Street police are continuing investigations.

  PC Norman Sanowar

Ok, Is this a Safety and Health matter? for those of you who did the Accident Investigation course, what do you think is the root cause?

Source Trinidad Express Oct 24, 2007 

A police officer who worked overtime and is said to have then visited a bar before leaving for home crashed into the rails of a bridge and died near his station.

PC Norman Sanowar was pulled from the wreck alive on Monday night but died before paramedics reached the Couva District Hospital.

Sanowar, of Third Street, Dow Village, California, worked in the charge room of the Gran Couva Police Station.

His wife, Cindy, 30, and three sons, Christopher, 11, Ronaldo, ten, and Nicholas, five, last saw him when he left for work at daybreak on Sunday.

Sanowar was due to work a 24-hour shift.

His wife said yesterday he called on Monday to say he was investigating a case and would be home that evening.

She recalled Monday night, “when my husband’s friend came to our home. I knew it was something bad right away”.

Sanowar’s sister-in-law, Wendy Sookraj, said: “He was my best brother-in-law, nice and kind. He helped my family when our father died and he was a good police officer.”

Cindy Sanowar believes her husband crashed because he was tired and sleepy.

Several witnesses said Sanowar visited a bar after leaving work and his car was seen swerving wildly along the road before it crashed.

Sanowar, a police officer for 15 years, will receive a funeral with military rites.

Wayne Lewis, aka “Rass”, one of the two workers buried under mounds of dirt on the HCL construction site at One Woodbrook Place in Port of Spain yesterday, is now warded at the Intensive Care Unit at the Port of Spain General Hospital with serious internal injuries, and is unable to breathe without the help of a ventilation machine.

Both Lewis, 53, and fellow worker, Roosevelt Wong, 20, were trapped when a trench they were in caved in just after 10 a.m.

Fire and police officers formed part of the rescue team who were called to the scene and helped to rescue the men, who are plumbers at the construction site.

Eyewitness at the site said that when the trench caved in, workers immediately gathered around to help the men and Wong who, unlike Lewis, was partially buried, was pulled out by the time the fire officers arrived. Lewis, they said, remained under the pile of dirt for at least half an hour.

While Wong escaped with minor injuries and was said to be resting comfortably at the St Clair Medical Centre last night, Lewis, a Chaguanas resident and father of two, was not so fortunate. His ribs were fractured and his god-sister, Beverly Greaves, told the Express that an X-ray also revealed that he sustained both spinal and chest injuries.

Greaves also said that Lewis, who had been buried all the way up to his neck in dirt, had been stabilised and conscious by yesterday evening, but was heavily sedated and unable to speak.

Co-worker, Hubert Julien, who was among concerned friends and relatives gathered outside the ICU yesterday, said he was praying that Lewis pulls through from this ordeal.

Julien was also supposed to be working in the same trench, but said he had instead left the construction site early because he was not feeling well. He said the trench he and he his colleagues were “supposed to be digging” was at least six feet deep.

Another co-worker, Bryan Ferreira, who accompanied Lewis in the ambulance to the hospital, said he had been bleeding from his “nose, ears and mouth”.

“It was traumatic seeing my brethren underneath the ground like that. I can’t describe how I felt when I saw that,” Ferreira said.

Greaves said most of Lewis’ immediate family, including his two children, Daphinah and Akiel, lived abroad. She said she was shocked by news of the accident, but said she had faith he would pull through.

“He has tubes all over and his neck is in a brace. He is hooked up to the machine but he looked fairly okay. He has been stabilised and he looks like he is going to make it,” Greaves said.

Greaves said this incident again points to the overriding issue of safety on construction sites, and “raises questions about what safety measures are in place”. She also said she would be more than willing to stand by Lewis if he decides to pursue any action against HCL.

Christine Francois, HCL’s Assistant Manager, Group Marketing and Communications, said in a statement yesterday that the company was currently compiling a report on the incident and was therefore unable to provide any specific details.

She said an HCL senior official had visited Lewis at the hospital.

Work at the construction site was aborted for the day because of the accident.

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Photo #1 - Shows evidence of a cigarette butt inside a non smoking area/hazmat area.

Photo #2 & 3 - Shows the BBQ cover and pit inside the non-smoking area/hazmat area. look at the numerous cigarette butts around the BBQ pit.
Photo # 4,5,6 - Notice the numerous signs about hazardous materials in the work area.
Photo 7 - Yours truly inspecting the area.
Photo 8- Storage of flamable material in the building.
Photo 9 - Note the bent steel beam from the fire. the fuel for the fire was wood and plastic sheeting. Keep in mind that Steel often melts at around 1370 degrees C (2500°F). This is on the 21st floor of the building. This was the same situation for about 5 floors in the building. think WTC collapse.
Photo 10, 11, 12 - This is the stairways which had been sealed off. Thus could have been the cause of the firemen getting trapped in the building and dying. Note the size of the wooden planks.
This is a NY times article on the fire - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/29/nyregion/29deutsche.html

Like I always say to you all don’t feel we are backwards in TnT. It happens in New York City all the time.  That is, regulations are flouted to the max.

GHL gets OSHA-ready

Thursday, August 23 2007

The Occupational Health and Safety Act has been recently passed in Trinidad and Tobago. Still in the early stages, corporations, ministries and companies with over 25 employees are required to enforce and begin its implementation.

Guardian Holdings Limited (GHL) and its members companies are taking the necessary steps to ensure that the Group is compliant with occupational safety and health legislation, not only in Trinidad and Tobago but also in Barbados and Jamaica.

Group Business Continuity Planning Manager, Reza Ali A Ali, has ramped up his team to include BCP Officer Nizam Saladeen and Health and Safety Operations Officer Marlene Dookwah-Eligon. They are charged with assisting departments within the group in developing their respective BCP plans and to assist the BCP Manager with developing and maintaining the company’s Health and Safety Programme.

Over a two-month period, it is expected that all employees in Trinidad and Tobago will be oriented on the contents of the Act as well as the responsibilities of both the employer and employee to ensure a safe working environment, GHL said.

In addition, approximately one hundred Emergency Wardens throughout the group have been trained and certified in first aid and CPR. Some other projects in the pipeline include continued training and re-certification of Emergency Wardens, training of other staff members in Advanced First Aid and CPR and implementing a Group Emergency Response Policy for “at work” injuries and illnesses.

Trinmar blast report done.

By CECILY ASSON - Newsday Saturday, July 21 2007

INVESTIGATIONS into the May 21 Trinmar explosion that killed Trinjet Services Ltd contract worker Ricardo Felix 38, and injured his two colleagues Richard Phillip, 34, and Kirl Peters, 23, has been completed and a report has been passed on to the management of Trinjet.

Yesterday, Ancil Roget, first vice-president of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) said, “As soon as the company’s (Trinjet Services Ltd) legal team looks at it we will take it to the next stage to ensure that the parties involved be properly compensated.

“They will be compensated under the old Workmen Compensation Act which might not be much but we will ensure that they receive compensation.”

Two months ago, Phillip, Peters and Felix were working at Platform 21 in Trinmar’s East Field when a gas line ruptured killing Felix instantly.

The two survivors are yet to return to work but said whenever they do, they will prefer the company place them in a different location.

Interviewed yesterday at their Point Fortin homes, Phillip and Peters told Newsday the memories of the accident in which Felix was killed haunt them each day.

Peters who received back injuries when the explosion pitched them off the pipeline said he has recovered and is waiting for when work becomes available.

He said: “While I am worried about returning to work, I have no other choice but to go because I have a wife and two children to take care of.”

Phillip however remains on sick leave because of pains to his shoulder and hand.

“I live this accident everyday and it’s hard,” he said, shaking his head from side to side.

Phillip worked as a well helper at the time of the accident but said he felt he was skilled enough “to handle himself in any other area.”

“Not something like that again,” said Phillip. The men said the company has been very supportive since the accident.