Report: Construction Co. Had Record of Safety Violations Before Fatal Accident

Thursday, August 16, 2018 | 0

The contractor working on a seismic retrofit project for the 100-year-old Twin Peaks Tunnel where a worker was killed last week had a history of safety violations, according to a report by the NBC affiliate in San Francisco.

Patrick Ricketts, 51, was killed Friday when a steel beam fell on him. According to NBC, Shimmick Construction was facing an Aug. 25 deadline to finish the project.

The television station claims that Shimmick Construction last year told the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency that it had never been cited for serious and willful safety violations.

A spokesperson said the transportation agency uses an “industry-wide standard” that takes into account the safety record and workers’ compensation claims of contractors when bidding on projects. The spokesperson said, “Shimmick represented they met those requirements.”

NBC, however, reports that Shimmick has been cited at least twice for workplace safety violations. The company was cited in 2011 for a serious and willful violation after a worker struck a gas line with a back hoe. The company appealed and NBC says the conduct described in a final decision “amounted to a pattern that was willful in nature, even though the final classification is simply willful.”

Shimmick was also cited for a serious violation following the November 2016 death of a forklift operator in Ventura County. The company’s appeal of the 2016 citations is ongoing.

Over the past decade, Shimmick “had been tied to 11 prior accidents, and nearly 50 worker safety violations,” NBC reports.