By: Las Vegas Now Staff
The city of Henderson faces safety violations and fines in connection with an employee's death last February. The state Occupational Health and Safety Administration has completed its investigation of the fatal accident.
Edgar Malloy was a heating and air conditioning technician for the city. According to OSHA's report, Malloy responded to an alarm in one of the cooling towers at City Hall.
He climbed inside without shutting down or locking out the power. When Malloy re-set a switch, according to OSHA, the motor re-started – and his jacket became entangled in the equipment.
Malloy died from his injuries two days later.
OSHA found 12 serious safety violations related to the accident. Among them — the city failed to develop complete energy control procedures. Those relate to shutting down the cooling towers.
The city did not train employees on the proper energy control procedure. And overall, it did not maintain a work environment free from recognized hazards.
“What we found is that there are improvements we can make to our safety standards. We take their citations very seriously. Our concern is that we don't have a tragedy that occurs like this again,” said Bristol Ellington, Henderson Asst. City Manager.
OSHA proposes more than $5,600 in fines. Ellington said the city will not dispute the figure or the findings.
He says the city is working and has been since the accident to improve its safety policies and procedures. Malloy is the only city employee ever killed in a job-related accident. Everyone we spoke to had wonderful things to say about him.
Email your comments to Investigative Reporter Colleen McCarty. |
