DPW Safety Violations Cited in Death of Worker at Dam

State investigators have cited the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works for serious safety violations in connection with the death of a maintenance worker who fell 400 feet when his safety line snapped as he was clearing brush at Pacoima Dam.

Investigators for Cal/OSHA, the state job safety agency, found that the mechanical hoist involved in the June 4 accident should not have been used to raise and lower workers because it was not approved by the manufacturer for that purpose, a Cal/OSHA spokesman said Monday.

County officials also failed to conduct a safety inspection on the day of the accident, used ropes that were thinner than required and did not set up backup safety rigging, said the spokesman, Rick Rice.

In addition, Cal/OSHA is still looking into reports that employees operating the hoist were not properly trained and is investigating possible criminal violations, with further citations possible, said Rice. Five of the citations were classified as “serious” but not willful, meaning the employer did not intentionally permit dangerous working conditions, Rice said. The sixth was a less severe “general” citation.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Public Works, which has 10 days to appeal the citations, said officials will not comment because they are still reviewing the Cal/OSHA findings. Cal/OSHA has ordered that the unsafe conditions be eliminated by July 3. The agency does not fine government agencies in such cases, Rice said.

The district attorney’s office is conducting an investigation into the accident that killed Mario Sanchez, 30, of San Fernando, a flood-control maintenance worker. Sanchez, a father of two, was killed when a safety line snapped as he dangled from the hoist to clear brush from a sheer mountain face next to Pacoima Dam.

Sanchez’s brother said Monday that the safety violations alleged by the state showed outrageous conduct by county officials and called for criminal charges.

“I don’t see how in this day and age that government does not take the proper precautions,” said Ralph Sanchez. “If government are the ones who set up the regulations, they should be the first ones to comply. I think there’s a lot of criminal negligence in this.”

Rees Lloyd, an attorney assisting the Sanchez family in gathering information on the accident, said Cal/OSHA should also have cited the county for allowing untrained employees to operate the hoist used in the accident.

“We are not blaming the guy who is operating the machine,” Lloyd said. “We are blaming bureaucrats who are eliminating jobs and taking shortcuts on safety.”

County officials would not comment on allegations by Lloyd and by Rudy Rico, a veteran construction supervisor in the Department of Public Works.

Rico said in an interview Monday that he warned safety officials several times about the danger of using workers who were not certified as hoist operators, most recently during a similar operation at the Sierra Madre Dam near Pasadena three weeks before the accident.

“It was the same kind of job the poor guy got killed on,” Rico said. “He should not have died.”

Rice said Cal/OSHA investigators had not turned up any reports of workers complaining to county officials about unsafe hoist operations before Sanchez’s death.