Safety is a critical consideration for managers and front-line technicians in all aspects of maintenance and engineering activities, and that issue also must remain a top priority when it comes to planning, managing and performing construction projects, as one school district has been reminded.
An Oregon investigation has ruled that the death of a construction worker at the Benson Polytechnic High School project site in 2024 was preventable and has found her employer, REFA Erection Inc., committed two “serious job safety violations” and fined the company $40,289, according to the Daily Journal of Commerce. Samantha Deschenes was run over by a forklift on May 30, 2024, resulting in injuries she later died as a result of.
“The company made a series of flawed decisions, the investigation found, exposing workers to a struck-by hazard that could be expected to seriously injure or kill them,” according to the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division. “The death of Deschenes, an apprentice ironworker for REFA, was preventable.”
Oregon OSHA identified two violations. The first found that REFA did not take all reasonable means to ensure employees used means and methods “that were necessary to safely accomplish all work where employees were exposed to a hazard.” That violation “caused or contributed to (a) work-related fatality.”
Deschenes was struck by a telehandler that was being used to transport metal railings from one staging area to another staging area. The metal railings were suspended from the forklift by a heavy-duty jib, Oregon OSHA found.
The forklift trips were made by a four-person team. During the third trip, Deschenes was struck by the forklift’s front right wheel and later underwent surgery.
Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.?
