Report: Bridge firm hid injuries - By Erik N. Nelson and Ryan Sholin, Alameda Times-Star, CA
Another local new bridge earthquake safety project that recorded low numbers was the Benicia-Martinez Bridge, with 1.65 injuries per 100 workers in 2004 with 600,000 man-hours of work. The bridge is being built by Kiewit Pacific.
Such numbers are lowest in the industry, but are regarded with bitter humor by workers fired after their injuries and safety advocates who say that both state and national regulatory agencies are ill-equipped to verify or disprove them.
Whenever Cal/OSHA safety inspectors arrived on the bridge site, KFM safety managers would offer up a "dog and pony show" during which they withheld even their own misgivings about worker safety, according to a statement in the state audit by Winston Peart, a former KFM safety manager and former Arizona state worker safety compliance officer.