OSHA: A company’s ‘willful indifference’ caused a worker’s electrocution death in Orlando

A Tavares company faces a proposed $237,566 workplace safety fine after an OSHA investigation into the March electrocution death of an employee in Orlando, the U.S. Department of Labor announced Wednesday.

Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration said United Signs & Signals committed four violations, two classified as Willful-Serious, in the trench on the Beachline Expressway. A 44-year-old electrician went into the trench on March 2 to splice wires that powered streetlights. He never came out — he touched live wires and was killed.

The Willful-Serious violation directly pointed to the March 2 tragedy says, in the penalty notification, that US&S “failed to de-energize and ground or effectively guard circuits prior to allowing employees to dig a trench, lay and splice wires that energize six street lights.”

OSHA Area Office Director Michelle Gonzalez in Jacksonville, Florida, said, “A man is dead because of US&S’s willful indifference toward protecting its workers.”

United Signs & Signals, registered to do business in Florida since 1994, has until Aug. 20 to pay the proposed fine, contest the violation or request an informal meeting with the area director. As for what the company will do, US&S secretary Michael Nelson said, “We can’t comment on anything right now.”

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