Death May Not Affect Bonus for MTA Firm

A Metro Rail contractor could earn a $500,000 bonus for safe work on the Hollywood subway tunnel even though a construction worker was killed on the job earlier this month, MTA officials confirmed Monday.

Dan Jackson, director of construction safety for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said the first fatality in the history of Los Angeles subway construction will not alone prevent Tutor-Saliba/Perini from collecting the entire safety bonus for the job that is expected to take nearly four years.

“There is the potential,” Jackson said. “[But] it would be very difficult for them to do.”

However, Jackson said, the agency has drafted language for future subway contracts that would prevent such a payment in the event of a catastrophic loss or death.

But under the current safety bonus program, contractors building the subway can receive a check each month in which there are no serious injuries that cause an employee to lose work time.

Asked about the safety bonuses, Ron Tutor, a principal in Tutor-Saliba, said it is “entirely possible” the firm could receive the full $500,000 because the payment is based on the overall rate of lost-time injuries, not on whether there is a fatal accident.

Jackson said the firm could still receive the full payment if its overall lost-time injury rate on the job is at or below 3.8. Through the end of January, the rate was 2.1.

Jackson said the rate of lost work time injuries is determined by a complex formula involving the number of lost-time injuries multiplied by 200,000 hours and divided by the total number of hours on the whole job.

The death of construction worker Jaime Pasillas, 52, will substantially increase that rate, Jackson said, and the ultimate amount the contractor receives will depend on its safety record on the rest of the job. “I can’t see them receiving the full $500,000,” Jackson said.

Tutor-Saliba/Perini had been paid $118,750 of the $500,000 in potential safety bonuses through the end of January, according to figures provided by the MTA. The contractor had no serious injuries that cost a worker time off the job in 19 of 21 months since tunneling began in 1995 beneath Hollywood Boulevard.

Jackson said the firm will not receive the monthly safety bonus for February because Pasillas was killed when a half-ton refuse bin called a muck bucket broke free of its mooring and struck him in the head. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

Tutor expressed regret at the death of Pasillas, which he said was the first fatality in the company’s 24-year history. “We feel very badly about it,” he said.

Tutor pointed out that the safety bonus program was developed by the MTA. Many other rail projects provide for such bonuses to encourage job safety.

Jackson said the MTA’s safety bonus program has been evolving and the agency has been making adjustments based on its experience as construction proceeds.

The Times reported last week that the MTA uses the statistics on lost work time to determine the project’s safety record, rather than the more comprehensive rate of all recordable injuries requiring medical attention.

Through the end of January, the lost-time rate on the Hollywood tunnel job was less than half the national average of 4.9 for that type of construction. However, the rate of recordable injuries on the same job was 35% above the national average. That rate was 16 compared to a national average of 11.8, according to MTA statistics.

The county transit agency also released figures Monday showing that the MTA has paid Traylor Brothers/Frontier-Kemper $147,435 in safety bonuses through January on a contract to build the subway tunnel from Hollywood through the Santa Monica Mountains to Studio City.

The company has had no lost-time injuries on the job, far below the national average. But its overall rate of recordable injuries was 20.4 through the end of last year or nearly 73% above the national average.