22-year-old fell through skylight after roofing company ignored deadly risks, feds say
A Louisiana roofing company is accused of failing to listen to inspector warnings about fall hazards before a 22-year-old employee fell to his death in April.
Now it faces hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said it started an inspection of Premier South Roofing — which employs about 200 workers across Baton Rouge, Lafayette, North Shore and other areas of Louisiana — in February after observing five employees working without “adequate fall protection.”
About two months later, a 22-year-old roof worker at a different job site lost their balance, stepped on a skylight window and fell 30 feet, officials say. The employee later died of their injuries in the hospital.
The Department of Labor says the deadly incident could have been prevented if the company heeded the earlier warnings about required fall protection standards.
McClatchy News reached out to Premier South Roofing and declined to respond.
“Falls continue to be the leading cause of deaths in the construction industry and yet, employers like Premier South Roofing LLC repeatedly failed to protect their workers from the risk of disabling injuries or worse,” Roderic Chube, OSHA’s Baton Rouge area director, said in the news release. “Ensuring that workers are trained on and use proper fall protection, as required by law, can prevent tragedies such as this from recurring.”
After another inspection in April, OSHA said it cited two repeat violations for not providing fall protection and verifying employee training. The company now faces nearly $250,000 in penalties and has until Aug. 12 to respond.
In 2020, there were 351 construction fatalities involving falls, according to OSHA, which stresses that “these deaths are preventable.”
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