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Man Injured At Facility Maintenance Company

A 62-year-old male maintenance mechanic who was employed by a facility maintenance firm, was killed when the scissors lift he was working from was struck by an overhead garage door in a cargo terminal building at an airport. The facility maintenance firm had been contracted by the owner of the cargo building, a shipping company, to repair the overhead door. NY FACE staff learned of the incident on December 14 from both a newspaper article and an area office of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

A NY FACE investigator traveled to the incident site and conducted an investigation. Additional information was obtained from the reports of the police investigator, the medical examiner’s office, death certificate, and OSHA. The victim’s employer had been in the facility/building maintenance business for several years and had six employees, including the victim, at the time of the incident. The facility maintenance firm had been contracted by the shipping company on a regular basis to perform maintenance tasks on its buildings at the airport.

The victim had worked for the maintenance firm for approximately two years. He did not receive specific training on installing overhead doors, although, according to a co-worker, he had worked on numerous overhead doors prior to the incident. This was the company’s first work-related fatality.