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Councilor requests hearing on safety conditions for construction workers - and pedestrians - following recent deaths downtown
By adamg on Tue, 03/02/2021 - 11:11am
City Councilor Ed Flynn will ask the council tomorrow to approve a hearing on whether more can be done to keep workers and people walking by construction sites safer, following last week's deaths of two workers pushed into a trench by a truck on High Street.
Flynn's request lists a series of fatal and near-fatal incidents over the past few years in Boston - including a 2019 incident in which a woman walking on Atlantic Avenue in the North End was hit by debris from a construction project. In 2019, the owner of a Roslindale pipe contractor was convicted of manslaughter for the drowning deaths of two of his workers in a South End trench.
These tragedies illustrate the importance of construction site safety,especially when cranes and machinery are set up in areas with dense pedestrian traffic,or above streets with heavy traffic,such as in the neighborhoods of South Boston, Downtown, Chinatown,the South End, Beacon Hill, and the Back Bay.
The council's meeting begins at noon.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
| Attachment | Size |
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 Flynn's hearing request | 104.89 KB |
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Comments
Excuse me, if you've heard
Excuse me, if you've heard this before.
Try starting with the police
Try starting with the police who receive no specific training on exactly what a "detail" is or what to do. They're IN work zones without high-vis gear, without steel toe shoes, no hard hat... and little "situational awareness" (hard to do your job when on a cell phones or chatting with the actual construction crew!
My suggestion, Civilian Flaggers
How many times have you seen a highly paid police officer doing detail work and never leave their vehicle at a construction site. For half the price you could get a civilian to do this work. No guarantee they'd pay more attention so use two at each site.
Have we had a clear account
Have we had a clear account of what happened yet?
You're saying the workers were "pushed into a trench by the truck", which sounds as if they were standing on street level when hit - but that only links back to your original article at the time.
Your original article was better than any of the "major" media outlets, but with the limited information at the time it was not clear and still is not clear if the truck/driver (a) hit people on the street, (b) drove over the edge of an otherwise safe trench, hitting/trapping workers in the trench, or (c) was driving safely, but an unsafe trench collapsed - causing the truck to hit/trap workers in the trench.
For that matter, all the other outlets kept saying how Secretary Walsh - errr.... Mayor Walsh quickly said "the company" would be suspended from any other permitted work in the City - but had conflicting reports as to whether it was the company doing the underground work or the trucking/dumpster company. For that matter, they never even said whether or not the trucking/dumpster company had anything to do with that work site.
I think your last bit there is the most important
Is this a case of a construction vehicle hitting some other construction workers, in which case we have a dangerous workplace that may require more supervision etc? Or is this a case of an unrelated vehicle hitting pedestrians that happened to be near a construction site, in which case this is another tragic traffic accident like so many others in the city? The list of examples seems to include both kinds of events too, which makes it even more confusing.