Jose Vasquez Jr., a 32-year-old union electrician and father of five, was crushed between a scissor lift and a wall while working at Burgard High School in Buffalo, and nine months later his widow says she still does not have all the answers about how he died. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Frey Electric, the electrical contractor on the job, $14,895, which the company paid, though the agency says the case remains open.
According to the Buffalo News, Vasquez was walking alongside a Skyjack electric scissor lift, operating it with a wired controller, as he tried to move it into a storage area near a ramp connecting floors of the high school to the building’s fourth floor when he became trapped against a wall. OSHA did not name the employee in its own report, but the Buffalo News identified him as Vasquez. The agency said it could not specify exactly when the accident happened, though it occurred during Vasquez’s 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift and closer to the end of that shift than the beginning. No students were in the building at the time. The school was in the midst of a project that included upgrades to the public address system, masonry and lighting at the school, located at 400 Kensington Avenue.
OSHA Fine and Contractor
The Buffalo News reports that OSHA fined Frey Electric $14,895 for failing to train workers on the job at Burgard High School. Frey paid the fine after providing written proof that it had addressed the safety hazard identified in the investigation. The agency had six months to complete its task. Frey declined to comment for the article.
OSHA’s training materials on the case reportedly covered moving hazards, staying clear of the lift and avoiding its direction of travel, according to the agency’s findings as relayed by the Buffalo News. Yaimel Vasquez said no amount of money in fines would bring the children’s father back. A Buffalo News Freedom of Information Act request for additional documents about the incident has remained unfulfilled.
Widow Describes Nine Difficult Months
Vasquez and his widow, who is the mother of two of his children and the administrator of his estate, had been together nine years, though the couple was separated at the time of his death. He had five children in total, including two who were seven years old and nine months old when their father died. She told the Buffalo News that the nine months since his death had been difficult and that the family had struggled mentally, emotionally and financially…