Grauer: Explosion of negligence
A government safety agency’s findings of construction negligence for the bomb-like explosion in February of a $10 million home on McLain Flats is shocking.
One can only imagine the terror and shock of the workers caught in the blast that devastated the construction site and injured eight workers. One was trapped under debris and had to be flown to Denver for trauma.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration levied fines on R&A Enterprises of Carbondale and Brikor Associates, Fine Home Builders of Basalt, citing numerous violations of workplace safety rules designed to prevent such catastrophes.
The president of R&A Enterprises, Chris Broadhurst, and Briston Peterson, a founder and the operations chief for Brikor Associates, owe the community an apology for their firms’ failures to provide a safe workplace. In particular, they owe one to the injured workers and their co-workers at the site.
Broadhurst should also apologize to the construction community for minimizing his firm’s negligence and casting blame on others.
He told The Aspen Times, “… and I can tell you I’ve been doing this in the valley and could take you to 40 construction sites where similar violations happen.”
Bernard Grauer
Basalt
