| Hawkins Construction Company, Inc., Issue No. 1 |
August 2000
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The Contractors Critic
HAWKINS CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, Inc. Reporting on Safety, Productivity, and Honesty in the Construction Industry.
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Death, Injuries, and Litigation
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Hawkins charged in court cases and 100 OSHA citations
Hawkins Construction
Company has performed many building jobs in the Omaha, Nebraska area. Their work
includes numerous heavy construction projects, such as highway jobs, parking
lots and water plants. But along the way, OSHA has cited Hawkins for over 100
job site safety violations. OSHA recently cited Hawkins for four violations at a
single job site, related to an accident there. In past years, OSHA has
discovered extremely unsafe conditions at several Hawkins jobs, and has cited
Hawkins for multiple violations. OSHA has found as many as eight violations at
one Hawkins job, ten violations at another and at one construction site OSHA
found the incredible number of seventeen violations.
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Two workers killed at Hawkins Construction sites:
OSHA has levied heavy fines against Hawkins for violations of safety rules.
In one case, closed April 2000, OSHA proposed a $25,000 fine against Hawkins
after a 43-year-old laborer was killed by a dirt clod.
OSHA proposed five violations,
including three serious charges, and a $22,500 fine, after a worker was
struck and killed by a backhoe bucket. The Critic has Freedom of Information
requests pending with OSHA for more details. |
The sheer number of OSHA violations incurred by Hawkins is, by itself,
evidence that Hawkins has allowed unsafe conditions in its work place. This
information is supplemented by several court cases, in which severely injured
workers have sued Hawkins over safety issues. Laser will provide a complete
listing of OSHA violations with more details in the next issue.
The court cases against Hawkins on safety issues, includes a suit by a worker
who fell from an unsafe scaffold, and was impaled by a pole as he fell. On
another job, a Hawkins supervisor was crushed by falling materials during
Hawkins’ demolition of a viaduct. Today, the former supervisor’s right arm is
virtually useless. Another worker fell through a hole that Hawkins had allowed
to remain uncovered in the roof of a water treatement plant. In another case a
drunken Hawkins supervisor is blamed for an injury to a workers face. Finally,
another worker slipped and fell from an unsafe ramp that Hawkins had placed on a
job site.
The details of these troubling court suits, tied with the large number of
OSHA citations received by Hawkins, paints a troubling picture of Hawkins’ job
safety record. | | | | |
