The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined the William A. Berry & Son construction company $46,200 on July 22 for allegedly willfully violating safety regulations last Spring when Mark Chopelas, 39, fell 23 feet to his death while working on the Village dormitory construction site. Berry & Son has appealed the fine, and if their appeal is not settled, an administrative judge will decide whether OSHA acted justly.An OSHA press release said the death could have been prevented if "Berry & Son, had supplied required fall protection." OSHA also calls the violations "alleged willful and serious."

A Berry & Son spokesman was unavailable at press time. However, Brandeis Chief Operating Officer Peter French said the University has spoken to Berry, and all appropriate OSHA recommendations have been implemented.

"A crew of laborers was dismantling a temporary work platform on the second floor level of an unfinished stairwell when Chopelas fell through the partially dismantled platform to the basement level," the OSHA statement said.

French said Brandeis was very concerned about the incident. "I had extensive discussions, as did the president, with leadership from Berry and we talked to them about what steps they were taking to do a review and what steps OSHA would be taking," he said. "This falls under the jurisdiction of OSHA and that's the appropriate entity to do the review and we have talked to Berry in that regard."

"On the other hand, these are very complex projects. They involve a lot of people and unfortunately these kinds of incidents do happen," French said. "What contractors need to do is to be vigilant at all times to try to prevent accidents,"

OSHA's inspection found that the employer had not provided fall protection for the workers. This exposed these workers to falls of almost 26 feet from the work platform. The workers had also not been instructed to recognize and avoid such fall hazards. A willful violation is defined by OSHA as one committed with an intentional disregard of, or plain indifference to, the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and regulations. A serious violation is one in which there is a substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result, and the employer knew, or should have known, of the hazard. According to Ted Fitzgerald, an OSHA spokesman, fines are assessed based on the severity of the violation. The fine of $4200 was assessed because the violation was allegedly "serious" and $42000 because the violation was allegedly "willful."

Due to the pending appeal, Fitzgerald could not provide any more details about the actual events, including whether or not Chopelas was wearing a safety harness.

In 2001 Berry & Son was fined $10,500 for three similar "serious" violations but ended up settling with OSHA for $5,250. As part of the settlement, according to Fitzgerald, Berry & Son admitted responsibility for their mistakes and fixed them.

According to French, Brandeis plans to take no further action other than what OSHA has already ruled against Berry. "It's not in our purview to do that," he said. "It's the responsibility of the federal government to do the review, which they've done, and to take any action that they decide is appropriate."

In the future Brandeis will still consider Berry & Son for major projects. According to French, "all construction projects of this sort involve a competitive process," he said. "As part of that competitive process we look at a number of things: price; experience on doing similar jobs; safety record. All of those things come in to play. We may consider Berry again in the future, and that would be in the context of whatever other proposals we may get from other contractors."

"We have had discussions and worked with Berry to make sure they've taken every step required by OSHA to be as safe as possible," French said.

Berry & Son is a major contractor that has worked on many large projects including the Shapiro Campus Center. At UNH-Congreve, Berry is also working on a $15.2 million project.

Founded in 1857, Berry & Son is one of the oldest construction managing companies in the United States.