Company faces nearly $1.2M in fines after Bristol County man dies in garage collapse

BOSTON (WLNE) — The United States Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Tuesday that a demolition company is facing nearly $1.2 million in fines after a Bristol County man died in a Boston parking garage collapse — during his first day on the job.

Peter Monsini, 51, of Easton, was completing demolition work on the eighth floor of the Government Center garage when a portion of it collapsed in March.

A review by OSHA found that the Brockton-based contractor JDC Demolition Company Inc. failed to “adequately train its workers on the demolition plan and safety management system to help them recognize and avoid unsafe conditions.

According to a statement Tuesday, on the morning of the collapse, another heavy equipment operator, told the supervisor about concerns of the floor’s safety.

“Despite the employee raising safety concerns to the foreman, a second employee was assigned to operate the excavator. That worker, [Monsini], never received a safety briefing and was not trained to follow the engineer’s demolition plan,” OSHA said. Monsini and the 11,000 pound excavator ended up falling 80 feet.

OSHA also found that the company “imposed unsafe loads, in the form of heavy equipment, on the partially demolished seventh, eighth and ninth floors.”

JDC Demolition faces eight proposed violations, totaling $1.19 million in fines.

“JDC Demolition Company Inc. knew the heavy equipment on the partially demolished floors were over the weight limits and still allowed a worker, unaware of the hazards, to do demolition work,” said OSHA Regional Administrator Galen Blanton in Boston. “This willful and egregious disregard for safety cost a workers’ life and exposed other employees to potentially fatal hazards.”

Additionally, John Moriarty and Associates Inc., the project’s general contractor, was also cited by OSHA and faces $58,000 in proposed penalties.

Both companies have 15 days to comply, request an information conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings.