Contractor Drops Appeal of Fine for Fatal Accident

Thursday, October 19, 2017 | 0

A contractor agreed to pay $280,000 in penalties for safety violations that resulted in the death of a worker, and an additional $12,500 for misclassifying the worker as an independent contractor.

The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development said Mark Welty, operating as North Country Services, dropped his appeal of the $280,000 citation issued in February. He accepted the violations as “willful,” meaning he acted with indifference toward the health and safety of his employees, the department said in a statement.

Nicholson Tinker, 24, died Sept. 30, 2016, when a retaining wall collapsed on him. The department said the death would not have occurred if Welty had taken appropriate steps to protect his workers.

Welty was fined for failing to perform a proper structural assessment before starting demolition, not providing workers with safety training, and failure to properly brace the retaining wall.

An investigation following Tinker’s death found Welty misclassified his employees as independent contractors.

The department said Welty agreed to pay more than $12,000 in penalties to the Division of Workers’ Compensation Benefit Guaranty Fund for failure to insure his workers.