Window Cleaning Companies Fined & About to Be Fined

Unconscious, Kuypers was rushed to Auckland City Hospital's intensive care unit. She had five dislocated ribs, a hairline fracture in her eye socket and broken bones in her neck, ankle, shoulder and collarbone.

Companies fined over window cleaner's fall: Two companies found to be responsible for a teenage window cleaner falling four storeys have been sentenced in Auckland District Court. Louisa Kuypers, 18, plunged 30 metres while scaling an office building in the Auckland suburb of Newmarket last year. The company she worked for - At Height Ltd - was today fined $9,000 while the company it contracted to - Building Wash Services - was fined more than $20,000.

Judge Emma Aitken said At Height Ltd was more responsible for the accident and originally allocated it a fine of more than $46,000. However, the fine was discounted as Aitken said the fine would effectively bankrupt the company. The 18-year-old made what doctors describe as a remarkable recovery after falling from the top of the Lion Breweries building. An emergency department clinician who helped save Kuypers said he believes wearing a helmet "helped immensely". Kuypers received compensation of $40,000 for the debilitating injuries she sustained during the fall. "Anything's fine. I wasn't really expecting to see more than $5000 so I'm quite happy with it," she said outside court.

Kuypers said her fall was "just an accident". "I was friends with all those guys and I didn't want to see them go down and I didn't want to see the company get hurt. In fact if I'd had it my way nothing would have happened. She is aiming to train as a nurse.

Thrill-seeking teen: For the thrill-seeking teen abseil window-washing was a natural career choice and her father Gilbert Kuypers told ONE News she was so happy in the job she "would have done it almost for nothing". But Kuypers worried about his daughter's safety. "I just dropped her off before the accident and I said, you know, be careful. And she's 'oh yeah, always do that'. And all of a sudden, bang, you know, she's in hospital, and all we're looking at is just a nose and a pair of eyes sticking out of bandages." He still wants answers about how the accident happened. Previous stories here.

Two companies have been fined almost $30,000 and ordered to pay $40,000 in reparation after an abseiling window cleaner suffered serious injuries in a 15-metre fall. The 18-year-old woman, who was employed by At Height Limited, was lucky to survive the fall from the Lion House building in Newmarket in February last year, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) said. The company was sentenced alongside Building Wash Services, which had contracted it for the work, in Auckland District Court on Friday.

The court was told that the victim was told to attach her sling and ropes to air-conditioning ducting brackets on the roof of the building - but the brackets were not fixed to the roof. In the fall, she suffered fractures to her skull, face, collarbone, lower legs and neck, and pulmonary contusions and lacerations to her liver. She spent nearly a fortnight in hospital.

Sentencing the company on Friday, Judge Emma Aitken said the appropriate starting point for a fine was $100,000. However, taking into account At Height's limited finances and other discounts, she reduced the fine to $9000, and ordered it to pay $32,000 to the injured worker. Building Wash Services was fined $20,800 and ordered to pay $8000 in reparation. Both companies had earlier pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety in Employment Act.

In a startling workplace accident earlier this year Louisa Kuypers, 18, fell from a 30-meter height while abseiling as part of her job, industrial window cleaning. Kuypers was washing windows at Lion Nathan offices in New Market, Auckland when she fell and realised immediately that something was wrong when she launched off the roof. The rope, usually meant to tighten up, kept releasing, letting her fall four stories onto concrete. She was taken to Auckland City Hospital’s intensive care unit unconscious and suffering from five dislocated ribs, a fractured eye socket and broken bones in her neck, ankle, shoulder and collarbone. Kuypers was lucky to survive the fall, and is especially lucky she isn’t permanently impaired by her injuries.  She was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, likely saving her from brain injury.

The building she was working on didn’t have the eyebolts that are usually used to thread abseiling ropes through so another form of anchorage was used. Kuypers said of her co-worker, a more experience rope-access worker, “[He] isn’t coping too well. There’s no blame, but he blames himself”. Rope Access Industry standards require two forms of anchorage to be used in this type of work, in case the first anchor fails. In a compliant set-up both anchors would have had to fail – in Kuyper’s case bystanders said only one metal anchor had fallen from the roof with her. The cause of the accident is still being investigated; this accident was the third of its kind in eight months in New Zealand.

The city distanced itself from the situation saying it wasn’t their employee. “The person in the picture you provided is an employee of Citywide Professional Window Cleaning, contracted to clean the windows of the building.”

Man on a ledge worries downtown workers (ALBUQUERQUE) - A worker standing on a ledge above the eighth floor at City Hall had people doing double-takes Wednesday. That is because by all appearances he wasn’t wearing a harness. The man was rigging up a platform to clean the windows on a high-rise 107 feet up. Now investigators want to know if he was wearing anything to keep him from plummeting to his death. The city distanced itself from the situation saying it wasn’t their employee. “The person in the picture you provided is an employee of Citywide Professional Window Cleaning, contracted to clean the windows of the building,” said Breanna Anderson, deputy communications director for the city of Albuquerque. “As such, the city is not liable.”

The owner of Citywide Professional Window Cleaning told KRQE News 13 the employee was wearing a harness. He called it a half harness and said it went around the waist and thighs. A photo was sent to KRQE News 13 that appeared to show a worker with nothing around his thighs. That’s when the company declined to comment further. Now OSHA , the government agency in charge of investigating workplace safety issues, is looking into the matter. “The photo that was provided to us indicated the potential for a high gravity hazard. A fall from that height would obviously be very severe,” said Bob Genoway, bureau chief for New Mexico OSHA. OSHA says it is possible the city is not off the hook. “When OSHA does inspections, we look at all employers on site to determine who has responsibility for different aspects of safety,” Genoway said. Multiple sources say the city’s risk management group has already met with the window cleaning company. OSHA says if it finds wrongdoing, the penalties can be up to $70,000 per violation.

Life Falling Through the Cracks: An employee of the Greek Parliament hangs after falling through the glass roof over the Greek Parliament Hall, in her efforts to prevent rain water from entering the building, in Athens, Greece, on Feb. 22. A heavy storm of rain and sleet in the greater Athens region created problems with transportation, flooding streets and interrupting sea transport.

Spidermen Everywhere & Las Vegas Company Fined

Merrill Hunt as Spider-man in action. Click to enlarge.

Nation in focus: Sao Doan, 5, right, watches as her mom, Tiffany Ringer, both of Kenneth City, snaps a photo of Merrill Hunt dressed as Spiderman as he washes her window at All Children's Hospital Thursday morning Jan. 10, 2013. Three window cleaners dressed as Spider-Man from High Rise Window Cleaning Company started cleaning windows on the outside of All ChildrenÍs Hospital Thursday morning.

Sick children's surprise: A window washer dressed as Spider-Man gives sick kids a treat at All-Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg. This Spider-Man may not be able to everything a spider can, but he has a couple of big things going for him. He does windows, and he offers some much needed cheer to sick children. Jon Powers, with High Rise Window Cleaning in Tampa, surprised kids at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg Thursday morning when he went into full Spider-Man mode while cleaning exterior windows.The window washer says he likes to dress up as the comic book superhero to help cheer up the young patients.

Dozens of children got a big surprise when window washers dressed as Spider-Man descended on the outside of All Children's Hospital on Thursday. The workers from Clearwater's High Rise Window Cleaners made several trips from the top of the building to the ground, washing windows and waving at patients. Child life clinical coordinator Holly Ott relished the chance to bring in the super hero. "Today at All Children's we had a really exciting opportunity to meet any child's hero, Spider-Man, climbing up the sides of the building, surprising chidren and making their day," Ott said. The event offered kids a chance to experience something they aren't likely to encounter again. And for Ott, the best part of the appearance was the surprise. 

 

Vdara, window washing company face fines for accident: Two companies, including the Vdara Hotel, face fines from OSHA after four people were trapped on a window washing rig 35 floors up in July. Both the Vdara Hotel and the window washing company, Sentinel Maintenance, were fined thousands by Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which recommended citations for both companies. This report shows that emergency measures saved the men from falling. According to a safety narrative News 3 received from OSHA, the problem stemmed from lack of training.
Two window washers were operating this lift for two maintenance workers, who needed to fix a window. The maximum load for the scaffold is 750 pounds. The report says that's typically safe for two workers and their tools. According to OSHA, the weight limit was exceeded by the extra two people and the lift started slipping. The men were saved from falling further when the emergency brake kicked in. It took fire crews five hours to get them down safely.
OSHA found the employers didn't provide written work procedures for the safe use of the lift as part of worker training. According to the paperwork, the Vdara didn't ensure their employees went through the proper training until after the incident. Because of the lack of training and guides, OSHA fined the Vdara nearly $3,000 for a serious violation. It also fined Sentinel Maintenance nearly $4,500 for four violations.

OSHA Targets Small Business Owners In Nevada

Brian Retke of Window Masters; "Had I capitulated to OSHA's demands, they would have put me out of business."

OSHA safety police do fine work (John L. Smith): I'm not sure this is what the federal experts had in mind. After being blasted in 2009 by its federal counterpart for doing too little to scrutinize workplace safety even after multiple on-the-job fatalities, the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration has gotten tough. Really tough. On a zookeeper. On a window washer. On a manufacturer of ice cream, and a maker of dentures.

Those small Nevada operators have found themselves fighting state OSHA after being whacked with thousands of dollars in fines over alleged safety violations that were either easily correctable or arguably inappropriate. It appears to be part of a policy that is bent at least as much on generating income as promoting safety. In recent weeks I've interviewed several longtime small-business owners who have dealt with OSHA over the years. Each stressed a willingness to maintain a safe work environment. But they also say they have noticed a change in OSHA's mission from workplace safety to fine generation, often for such egregious violations as cracked wall plug covers and improperly displayed safety manuals.

Is it a way to make budget, or perhaps an overreaction to its own under performance in addressing far larger safety issues involving, for instance, the "clearly supportable repeat violations" related to the worker deaths at local hotel-casinos? The federal analysis found state OSHA inspectors had an exceedingly light touch when it came to large offenses involving workplace fatalities at big businesses. The safety police couldn't find it in their hearts to pull the trigger and level hefty fines and penalties even in cases in which fatalities had occurred at Strip casino resorts. The lack of fines of more than $45,000 was noted by federal OSHA investigators, who had to narrow their field of inquiry to fines of $15,000 because the state had been so conservative in its charges.

Then there's Brian Retke, who owns the Window Masters commercial window cleaning service. His citations totaled $2,800 over how his high-rise rigs were securing their lines. He thought his troubles were over when he won his appeal in front of an OSHA review board, but then the safety police appealed to District Court. Retke still is fighting more than a year later. "I'm a small-business owner, so I have to do all this myself," Retke says. "I had to put in a huge expense just to fight at the review board. ... I believe that, somewhere along the line, the correct mark was missed by OSHA. Had I capitulated to their demands, they would have put me out of business. What is my recourse? I have to dig deeper into my pockets. I have to wash a lot of windows to pay for this. This is my livelihood. This is how I support my family."

Back in 2009, the federal review called state OSHA's inspectors an overworked bunch, but officials also noted the inspectors were too easy on egregious repeat offenders. And nowhere in that report did federal authorities say state OSHA needed to start terrorizing mom-and-pop operations. Nevada's small-business owners are having enough trouble surviving in this economy. It's time for Nevada's safety police to pick on someone their own size. Full story here.

Company & Hospital Fined For Window Washer Death

Company, Hospital Fined For Window Washer Death: A window washing company and Park Nicollet have both been fined in connection with the death of a window washer who died after a three-story fall outside Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park last September. Bryan Prairie, 24, of Plymouth died after the fall on Sept. 2, 2009. Prairie and another co-worker were working near the entrance to the emergency room when they fell. Both Consider It Done Services and Park Nicollet were fined by Minnesota OSHA. Consider It Done was fined $28,750 and Park Nicollet was fined $7,000. Both parties have contested the citation and both cases are open. The next step is Minnesota OSHA will have an informal conference with both parties in hopes of trying to settle the case.

Chris Bemis, owner of CID Services, LLC, the company that was cleaning the windows at the hospital issued the following statement from the company after the incident:
"The young man who passed came to our company this year as a friend of many of the guys on our team. He was working with us while he looked for a job as a nurse. We were afforded a great opportunity to have him be a part of our little family, and we are heartbroken that he is gone. He has a wife and a young son, and our deepest sympathies are with his family now and in the future.
My business partner and friend is lying in a hospital bed, being treated for his injuries. He has always maintained a wonderful sense of kindness and love to all those who have had the opportunity to cross his path, especially his friends. And the young man who has passed was his friend. We know that even during his own recovery, our partner is grieving this tragic loss.
I would finally like to personally thank the staff at Park Nicollet for the part they played In bringing so much compassion and understanding to such a dark day in the lives of so many. It was a touching display of humanity that will stay with us forever. I am particularly grateful for the genuine caring they have shown for the families of those impacted by these tragic events. It is a credit to them as a group and as individuals."

Bryan Prairie (pictured) took the window-washing job to support his family, his father said. The window washer who fell three stories to his death at Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park had taken the job this summer while looking for work as a nurse, his father said Friday. Bryan Prairie, 24, of Plymouth, was dead by the time rescue personnel arrived after he and a co-worker fell from scaffolding along the 40-foot-tall building about 3 p.m. Thursday. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office has not released the man's name, but Bill Prairie confirmed Friday that the dead man was his son.
Prairie was working for Consider It Done Cleaning to support his wife and 5-month-old son, his father said. The young man, who graduated from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D., had just passed his nursing boards in July after earning degrees in biology and nursing. The other man who fell was alert and talking soon after the accident, and was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.