Big New Trouble for Con Edison
By Eyewitness News' Jim Hoffer
New York-WABC, December 14, 2004 — There is big trouble for Con Edison. After a federal investigation into the deaths of two Con-Ed workers, Eyewitness News has learned the utility has been hit with some heavy fines and cited with serious safety violations. It all stems from last summer's fatal manhole explosions. The Investigators' Jim Hoffer has the story.
It was one of the worst accidents in Con Ed's history, two workers killed, several others injured when a manhole they were working in last summer exploded. Now, following a six-month investigation, the federal government has found the utility violated basic safety standards that could have contributed to the fatalities.
Diana Cortez, OSHA Dir.: "These violations are very serious and we've accessed the maximum penalty by law."
Thirty-five thousand dollars in fines and six serious violations. Among them: Failure to properly train workers to cut the power to major cables before entering the manhole. Eyewitness News Video:
Hoffer: "Workers went in there and the cable was still live?"
Cortez: "That's correct."
Hoffer: "And by OSHA standard that power should have been cut off?
Cortez: "Yes."
The U.S. Labor Department also alleges that Con Ed failed to protect the workers by providing them with the proper safety clothing. Hoffer: "They should have been wearing what?"
Cortez: "Fire retardant clothing."
Hoffer: "Had they been wearing fire retardant clothing could that have lessened or prevented the severity of these injuries?"
Cortez: "There's a high probability, yes."
In a statement to Con Ed says it took, "immediate steps to address the conditions that led to the tragedy and initiated retraining programs for all employees who work with power cables."
But the criticism with Con Ed is that these safety steps always come after a deadly accident. When Jodi Lane died after walking on an electrified grate, Con Ed then began its annual inspection for stray voltage. This latest re-training of workers comes after two of them die.
State Rep. Richard Brodsky, (D) Greenburg: "A sense that these may not be accidents that were unstoppable, inevitable. But practices, policies led to this kind of stuff and it sends a chill up your spine."
It's been a bad year for Con Ed. Besides the fatalities, many close calls:
Windows shattered when a manhole exploded during rush hour in midtown, a mini-van destroyed in another manhole explosion. Luckily no one was inside. Also, a transformer fire causes chaos in Herald Square. Now to cap it all off, serious safety violations.
Brodsky: "If they're not capable of changing their culture internally then it is the government's job to come in and make them change."
The labor department tells us Con Ed has taken corrective action following the double-fatality, including providing fire-retardant clothing for all work crews. the question is why didn't they have this gear before.
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