NEW YORK
DNA Info
By Gwynne Hogan | June 28, 2016
WILLIAMSBURG — Federal safety inspectors who found a yeshiva construction site riddled with perilous worker safety conditions including “impalement hazards” in early June, failed to notify city agencies about the risk, allowing construction to continue at the site for weeks despite the dangerous conditions.
The Department of Buildings, which is the agency that actually has the authority to shut down unsafe construction sites, only learned about the hazardous conditions at 638 Bedford Ave., an under-construction yeshiva after DNAinfo New York called to ask about the violations.
Federal safety inspectors from the U.S. Labor Department’s Occupational Safety & Health Administration had randomly inspected the school in Williamsburg on June 3. They found 21 serious worker safety violations including no fall protection around elevator shafts, skylights and other open holes, and a slew of “impalement hazards” due to unguarded rebar jutting up from the structure, they said.
Yeshiva Kehilath Yakov, the company that owns the site and runs several schools in Williamsburg and Borough Park, was notified of the violations June 19 and several days later OSHA issued a press release about the inspection.
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