State Fines Canby Contractor $235K for Repeatedly Failing to Protect Workers from Falls

The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration, better known as Oregon OSHA, has again hit a Canby-based general contractor, Colima Construction, with significant fines for allegedly failing to follow proper safety guidelines and protect its workers.

Oregon OSHA fined Colima nearly $235,000 for violations of multiple safety rules that state inspectors say they observed at job sites in Bend, Aumsville and Tigard.

According to the state, the contractor has a record of overlooking worksite safety requirements, including breaking fall protection rules at least six times since 2017. The repeated violations have resulted in steeper fines, Oregon OSHA said.

“It is inexcusable to ignore practical safety standards that have, time and again, proven effective at protecting workers from on-the-job hazards,” Oregon OSHA Administrator Michael Wood said in a press release. “Yet, this employer continues to disregard the need to effectively address those rules, sidestepping its responsibilities and putting lives at needless risk.”

The fines totaling $234,850 stem from three citations the division issued against the company in March and April of this year, including having a worker on the roof of a home in Aumsville with no fall protection (see photo).

They follow two citations — totaling more than $120,000 — that Oregon OSHA issued against the company in September 2019. Those citations last year were for the company’s failure to meet fall protection requirements at the site of a residential development in Eugene.

Falls are the leading cause of death in the construction industry.

Colima has appealed two of the three citations from this year, as well as both of the ones they received last September.

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