Jose Vasquez Jr., a 32-year-old union electrician and father of five, was crushed between a scissor lift and a wall while working at Burgard High School in Buffalo, and nine months later his widow says she still does not have all the answers about how he died. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Frey Electric, the electrical contractor on the job, $14,895, which the company paid, though the agency says the case remains open.
According to the Buffalo News, Vasquez was walking alongside a Skyjack electric scissor lift, operating it with a wired controller, as he tried to move it into a storage area near a ramp connecting floors of the high school to the building's fourth floor when he became trapped against a wall. OSHA did not name the employee in its own report, but the Buffalo News identified him as Vasquez. The agency said it could not specify exactly when the accident happened, though it occurred during Vasquez's 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift and closer to the end of that shift than the beginning. No students were in the building at the time. The school was in the midst of a project that included upgrades to the public address system, masonry and lighting at the school, located at 400 Kensington Avenue.
OSHA Fine and Contractor
The Buffalo News reports that OSHA fined Frey Electric $14,895 for failing to train workers on the job at Burgard High School. Frey paid the fine after providing written proof that it had addressed the safety hazard identified in the investigation. The agency had six months to complete its task. Frey declined to comment for the article.
OSHA's training materials on the case reportedly covered moving hazards, staying clear of the lift and avoiding its direction of travel, according to the agency's findings as relayed by the Buffalo News. Yaimel Vasquez said no amount of money in fines would bring the children's father back. A Buffalo News Freedom of Information Act request for additional documents about the incident has remained unfulfilled.
Widow Describes Nine Difficult Months
Vasquez and his widow, who is the mother of two of his children and the administrator of his estate, had been together nine years, though the couple was separated at the time of his death. He had five children in total, including two who were seven years old and nine months old when their father died. She told the Buffalo News that the nine months since his death had been difficult and that the family had struggled mentally, emotionally and financially.
Vasquez had worked as an electrician for about 11 years, most recently as a union electrician with IBEW Local 41, per the Buffalo News. His widow said OSHA's report did not answer all of her questions about how the fatal accident happened.
Lawsuit Names School District, City and Contractor
Vasquez's widow filed a lawsuit in state supreme court in Buffalo against Buffalo Public Schools, the City of Buffalo and Rand James Jones Enterprises, accusing all three defendants of negligence in his death. The City of Buffalo owns the Burgard High School building, and Buffalo Public Schools is responsible for its upkeep, while Rand James Jones served as the general contractor for the work being done there. The district has since filed a third-party complaint to add the electrical contractor named in the seed reporting as a defendant in the case.
Each named defendant has pushed back on responsibility. Jennifer Collessano, an assistant legal counsel for Buffalo Public Schools, argued that Vasquez's injuries resulted from his own negligence and that the district was not responsible for what happened to him. Rand James Jones has said Vasquez bore responsibility for his own injuries while the negligence of other defendants caused his death, and the company's contract and insurance policies reportedly identified the City of Buffalo as protected from paying damages in a workplace accident. Rosa Alina Pizzi, Buffalo's corporation counsel, wrote that the school district controlled and operated the premises and argued that the school district and Rand James Jones bore responsibility for the incident.
Buffalo Public Schools spokesperson Jeffrey Hammond declined to comment on the OSHA report and the litigation, and Rand James Jones president Joan Yang did not respond to a request for comment, according to the Buffalo News.
Scissor Lifts and Scaffold Safety Rules
The incident fits into a documented pattern of risk tied to aerial work equipment. The eLCOSH database notes that scissor-lift deaths have accounted for over 25 percent of aerial-lift fatalities, and that the cause was unknown in more than half of scissor-lift fall deaths, with workers ejected in about one-fifth of those falls. Separately, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has said in a standard interpretation that scissor lifts are covered by the non-aerial-lift portions of the scaffold standard, a framework distinct from the rules governing boom-type aerial lifts.
The Buffalo News article on the OSHA fine and lawsuit was written by Stephen T. Watson and published in the outlet's public safety section.
