Monday, April 27, 2009 | 2:11 a.m.
By law, the federal Labor Department is supposed to review state occupational safety and health administrations every year. It is a review that is often seen as little more than perfunctory. It shouldn’t be, particularly in Nevada.
OSHA here has clearly had problems, as demonstrated by the 12 construction deaths on the Strip in an 18-month period. The state didn’t aggressively intervene to stop that tragic string of deaths until after the Las Vegas Sun started reporting the problems last year.
Nevada OSHA should have been working to stop the accidents as soon as the pattern emerged, but the agency was — and is — understaffed and underfunded. And there was a prevailing attitude that assumed that fatal accidents were an expected part of construction projects.
The question now is whether Nevada OSHA has changed and learned a lesson from this tragic situation. Should there be another boom in construction in the near future, is anyone confident that Nevada OSHA could do the job?
Typically, the annual reviews gloss over questions like that, but the situation in Nevada demands greater attention. Federal OSHA should understand that. It found “serious concerns” with the way the state handled the investigation of two deaths off the Strip at the Orleans.
After a high-level political appointee got involved in the case, the state significantly reduced the citation from “willful” to “serious” and slashed the fines against the Orleans’ owner, Boyd Gaming. The federal review, however, found that Boyd Gaming’s actions fit the “exact definition” of a willful violation.
State officials bristled at the federal review and denied there was a problem. Nevada OSHA chief Tom Czehowski wrote, “We do not agree that the handling of this case raises significant concerns. A more thorough investigation by Federal OSHA personnel would have been welcome.”
Good. Then he should welcome a complete and independent review to determine whether his agency truly can protect working Nevadans.
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