Bridge collapses, then 1,700-pound saw kills worker, feds say. Georgia companies fined
A 33-year-old worker died on a demolition project in Georgia in 2021 when a bridge collapsed after two companies failed to follow safety standards, authorities said.
Now, the U.S. Department of Labor is citing the companies.
B&D Concrete Cutting Inc. of Atlanta and Georgia Bridge and Concrete LLC of Tucker were cited after a worker died on their project’s site on Oct. 19, 2021, the agency said in a May 5 news release.
B&D Concrete Cutting and Georgia Bridge and Concrete did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on May 6.
The companies were working on a demolition project in Covington, a city about 35 miles southeast of Atlanta, according to the release.
The citation stated the companies “did not conduct a proper engineering survey” before allowing workers to start the project and there was no procedure in place to prevent “structural members from being overstressed during dismantling operations.” As a result, workers were exposed and hit by hazards, the agency said.
As the bridge was being deconstructed, an overstressed section collapsed and fell into the Yellow River, according to the agency.
“During the collapse, a concrete saw weighing more than 1,700 pounds struck and fatally injured the worker,” the Department of Labor said in the release. Another employee was injured and hospitalized.
“If the employers had conducted a proper survey on this highly technical project as required, the tragic loss of one worker and serious injuries to another may not have happened,” OSHA Area Office Director Joshua Turner in Atlanta-East said in the release. “Established safety standards exist to ensure workers get home safely and don’t leave families, friends and communities to grieve a preventable fatality.”
Georgia Bridge and Concrete, the project’s main contractor, had received about $3 million in May 2021 to reconstruct the bridge after it had been declared “deficient” by the Department of Transportation, according to the Henry Herald.
Georgia Bridge and Concrete was fined $31,283 and B&D Concrete Cutting was fined $25,669, according to the agency.
Georgia Bridge and Concrete is a bridge and heavy civil construction company that specializes in bridges, culverts and other concrete structures, according to its Facebook page. B&D specializes in concrete cutting.
This story was originally published May 6, 2022 at 2:18 PM with the headline "Bridge collapses, then 1,700-pound saw kills worker, feds say. Georgia companies fined."
