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June 10, 2008 
Nothing demonstrates more vividly that construction contractors can subject their workers to dangerous - even fatal - conditions with near total impunity than the punishments just proposed in one of the most outrageous incidents in recent memory.New York will long remember how Edgar and Alcides Moreno plunged 47 floors when their window-washing scaffold gave way on the upper East Side in December. Edgar was killed. Miraculously, Alcides survived incredibly serious injuries and is walking today. According to findings issued by the federal Occupation Safety and Health Administration, the brothers were placed directly in harm's way by two companies: Tractel, which repaired the scaffold, and City Wide Window Cleaning, which employed the Morenos. OSHA charges, among other things, that the firms allowed the scaffold to be attached to the building with clamps that were destined to fail and that the brothers were not provided with safety harnesses to hold them aloft in case of scaffold failure. As described by OSHA, Tractel and City Wide Window Cleaning are guilty, at a minimum, of gross negligence. And the agency says it is moving to impose its maximum permissible fines. A grand total of roughly $20,000 per company. Less than the cost of a used pickup truck. For killing a man and subjecting another to grievous injuries. Financial penalties like that are meaningless as a deterrent to corner-cutting by contractors. Just as bad, OSHA generally investigates safety violations only after a death or serious injury. The agency doesn't have the staff to search for hazards and impose fines before there's a terrible episode. An alternative is to lodge criminal charges, like manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide, against contractors who bear responsibility for worker deaths. But those cases are few and far between because they are incredibly difficult to prove. Wednesday's Daily News reports that Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes is hauling one builder into the dock in the death of Louro Ortega, who was buried alive in March while excavating a foundation. At the time, we urged Hynes to investigate, saying the loss of Ortega's life "must become a clarion call for the toughest possible crackdown on construction hazards. Too many people are getting injured or losing their lives." Since then, with cranes toppling and more workers hurtling to their deaths, the toll has only risen. It's no wonder, because very few of the guilty pay a price for their misdeeds.
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