Federal agency decisions, searchable in plain English.
Workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) and mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), each with a plain-English summary, the standards it cites, and whether it counts as precedent. More agencies are coming.
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Chicago Bridge & Iron
Crane swing-radius barricade violation affirmed
Chicago Bridge used a crane with a broken swing-radius barricade while constructing a water tower. A walkway to the job trailer passed through the crane's danger zone, and employees worked nearby while cylinders were moved. The judge found employee access reasonably predictable even apart from…
American Bridge Company
Connector fall violation affirmed as serious
An American Bridge ironworker fell about 70 feet from a steel girder after unhooking his fall-protection lanyard. The judge found constructive knowledge because the foreman was nearby, supervisors had seen workers untied on prior occasions, and the project owner had repeatedly warned American…
J.F. White Contracting Company
Repeat crane-swing violation affirmed
J.F. White operated a crane in a narrow roadway work zone without a physical barricade around the rotating counterweight's swing radius. Employees worked nearby, and the company used two spotters, audible alarms, and flashing lights to keep people away. The judge agreed that a conventional…
Recchi America, Inc.- GLF Construction Corp., A Joint Venture
Rebar and crane swing-radius violations affirmed
OSHA cited the joint venture building Georgia's Sidney Lanier Bridge for uncapped reinforcing steel, open access holes, an inadequate crane swing-radius barricade, and failure to secure a crane to a barge. The judge affirmed the serious rebar violation and the repeat swing-radius violation. The…
E & R Erectors, Inc.
Steel-erection fall-protection and crane items affirmed against E & R, related companies dismissed, $3,000
OSHA inspected the steel erection at the ASTM International Headquarters construction site in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, and cited E & R Erectors, Inc. E & R claimed it was not on the site that day, so the Secretary amended the complaint to add two related companies, Samuel Grossi and Sons…
Triangle Engineering Corp.
Mixed construction ruling carries $1,350 in penalties
Triangle Engineering was the general contractor building a prison in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. The ALJ affirmed serious violations involving site-specific safety instruction, missing edge guardrails, an accessible crane swing radius, and an unprotected excavation. She also affirmed other-than-serious…
Irwin Steel Erectors Inc.
Four contested construction items vacated
Irwin Steel Erectors performed steel erection and welding during construction of a Motorola facility in Austin, Texas. At the hearing, it resolved six serious citation items by withdrawing its contests in exchange for reduced penalties. The four remaining items concerned fire-extinguisher access…
Vogel Brothers
Four serious construction violations affirmed, two vacated
Vogel Brothers Building Company was the general contractor on a wastewater administration building project in Tampa, Florida. The judge affirmed serious violations involving an unavailable fire extinguisher at a diesel fueling area, unguarded floor edges, an unbarricaded crane swing radius, and…
Williams Enterprises, Inc.
Four citation items and $2,300 penalty became final
Williams Enterprises was the steel-erection contractor for a multistory building in Virginia. OSHA cited perimeter fall protection, an improperly positioned and unsecured ladder, an unbarricaded crane swing radius, missing perimeter railings, and gaps in temporary flooring. The judge vacated the…
All Purpose Crane, Inc.
Broken-wire citation vacated for insufficient proof
All Purpose Crane operated a crane whose boom rope broke and whose boom collapsed at a Florida construction site, killing three workers. OSHA cited the company for several crane, wire-rope, recordkeeping, and fire-extinguisher conditions. The judge affirmed serious items for overloading the crane…
A.H. Beck Foundation Company, Inc.
Drilling-rig crane citation vacated
A.H. Beck used a modified Northwest Model 41 machine to drill foundation piers and to lift reinforcing steel and casing into the holes. OSHA cited the company for failing to barricade the machine's rotating swing radius under the construction crane standard. The judge treated the machine as a crane…
Bechtel Power Corporation
Crane-barricade citation vacated
Bechtel used rope-and-flag barricades around cranes while building a power plant. A crane oiler was killed when he was caught between the tracks and rotating superstructure of a crawler crane, and OSHA cited the barricading standard. The Secretary conceded that the physical barricade was the type…
Dravo Engineers and Constructors
Hazard-instruction citation vacated
Dravo barricaded the swing-radius area around a crawler crane and instructed employees about the counterweight hazard. During a follow-up inspection, OSHA observed three employees cross the barricaded area and cited Dravo under the construction hazard-instruction standard. The judge found that…
Lisbon Contractors, Inc.
Backhoe swing-radius citation vacated
Lisbon Contractors used a crawler backhoe to lift a trench box without barricading the machine's rotating superstructure. OSHA cited the crane swing-radius standard on the theory that using the backhoe for lifting transformed it into a crane. The Commission held that the standard and its…
Concrete Construction Company
Crane swing-radius standard held inapplicable
Concrete Construction used a dragline to dredge soil from a river and place it nearby. Although the machine could perform limited lifting and could be converted into a crane after substantial modification, the Commission held that it was not performing a function normally performed by a crane at…
Tri-City Construction Company
Crawler swing-radius violation affirmed
Tri-City used a 235 Crawler Caterpillar both to excavate a trench and to lower pipe sections into it. The accessible swing radius behind the machine's rotating superstructure was not barricaded, and at least one employee was exposed. The Commission held that crane and derrick standards apply…
Mid-States Construction Co., Inc.
Trench and crane rulings affirmed in two-member impasse
Mid-States Construction Co., Inc. was cited over trench shoring, an unbarricaded crane swing radius, and unguarded moving machine parts. Both commissioners agreed that the crane required a physical barricade and affirmed that violation. They disagreed about the trench-shoring violation and whether…
Jensen Construction Co.
Runway and crane-barricade violations affirmed
Jensen employees crossed an unguarded plank suspended over bridge formwork, and employees also had access to the unbarricaded swing radius of an operating crane. The Commission treated the plank as a runway because employees used it as a passageway, even though it was not designed for that purpose…
Charles H. Tompkins
Scaffold access deemed de minimis and crane item vacated
Employees building an upper work platform climbed scaffold-buck rungs spaced 18 to 20 inches apart instead of using a ladder with 12-inch rung spacing. The Commission held that the scaffold bucks were not equivalent safe access, but the added spacing did not appreciably reduce climbing safety. It…
Coastal Pile Driving, Inc.
Fall and crane violations reclassified as serious
A Coastal Pile Driving employee repeatedly worked on a pile lead about 18 feet above the ground without fall protection. Several other employees worked within two to five feet of an unbarricaded rotating crane superstructure beside an excavation. The company admitted both violations but disputed…
O.K. Construction Company, Inc.
Crane, hard-hat, and recordkeeping items affirmed with penalties reduced
O.K. Construction was performing excavation work with a crawler crane at a West Virginia lift-station project. The judge affirmed a repeated fire-extinguisher violation and nonserious items involving missing crane information, an unbarricaded swing radius, absent annual-inspection records, an…
McHugh & McHugh
First-aid and crane swing-radius items affirmed
McHugh & McHugh used two barges and a crane while constructing a railroad bridge over the Willamette River. The Commission affirmed a first-aid item because supplies locked in a shore-side trailer were not easily accessible to employees working on barges in the river. It also affirmed a serious…
CTM, Inc.
Combined trench and spoil-pile violation affirmed
CTM excavated a 13-foot-deep sewer trench in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, without shoring and with nearly vertical lower walls in soil of average stability. A ten-foot-high spoil pile containing large soil chunks sat three feet from the trench, where employees were working below. The Commission held…
Sletten Construction Co.
Bridge guardrail citation affirmed
Sletten Construction was excavating bridge piers and used a work bridge above water without guardrails. The Commission upheld the judge's finding, based on circumstantial evidence, that employees were exposed to the unguarded bridge and affirmed the repeated violation with a $340 penalty. It also…
Allied Structural Steel Company
Crane swing-radius citation vacated by an equally divided Commission
Allied Structural Steel used a truck-mounted crane while shaking out steel beams at a power-station project. The crane's outriggers were fully extended and an oiler had been assigned to act as a flagman, but no physical barrier enclosed the rear swing radius. OSHA cited the company for failing to…
Julius Nasso Concrete Corp.
Construction-site fire, floor-opening, and crane citations affirmed
Julius Nasso was a concrete contractor on a New York project involving three twelve-story buildings. OSHA cited inadequate firefighting equipment, unguarded floor openings, and an unbarricaded crane swing radius. The judge found that the available water equipment did not cover the required floor…
White Oak Corporation
Crane power-line violations affirmed with $1,355 penalties
White Oak operated a crane near 13,200-volt power lines at a Connecticut highway project. The crane boom and ball contacted the lines, and an oiler at the outrigger controls was electrocuted. The judge found a serious violation for failing to maintain ten feet of clearance and a nonserious…
W. J. Lazynski, Inc.
Crane swing-radius penalty reduced to $360
W. J. Lazynski performed sewer construction from a narrow highway median in Wisconsin. An employee was fatally crushed between a rotating crane counterweight and stacked steel liner plates in an accessible swing-radius area that had not been barricaded. The company had been permitted to close only…
What these documents are
- Commission decisions: Rulings by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission itself, the highest level of agency review. These are citable as Commission precedent, though a decision may have been appealed to a U.S. Court of Appeals after issuance.
- ALJ decisions: Rulings by OSHRC Administrative Law Judges after a hearing. When no Commissioner directs review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j): it binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent in other cases.
- Why finality matters: Every page here says which kind of decision you are reading, so you know whether it is precedent you can cite or a final order that only shows how one judge ruled on one set of facts.
- Where they come from: Every page links the official OSHRC public release, and the full text on the page is that release. The plain-English summaries are written by Ezel.