Editor’s Note: From all accounts this was a tight knit crew and nothing can bring back the tragic loss of a son and a co worker. The Involuntary manslaughter charge is overzealous.  Mark Porter for the rest of his life will replay the mistakes made on that fateful day.  Instead of jail time, have Mr. Porter talk safety and give seminars at OSHA classes. Talking safety to prevent accidents would accomplish more than having Mr. Porter spend time in jail.

A crane operator faces involuntary manslaughter charges in a 2014 incident in which his son and another construction worker plummeted to their deaths from above a Winters bridge construction site.

Mark Porter operated the crane that lifted the basket carrying son and operator Marcus Zane Porter and pile driver Glenn Allen Hodgson early May 30, 2014, according to a Cal-OSHA citation.

The hoisted basket they rode aboard broke free, plunging the pair eight stories to their deaths.

CAL-OSHA ASSESSED $106,110 IN FINES AND FOUND THAT THE CRANE PORTER USED WAS NOT CERTIFIED FOR LIFTING AND THE SAFETY LATCH ON THE HOOK THAT HELD THE BASKET DID NOT LOCK.

Porter was arraigned in Yolo Superior Court on the charges Dec. 21 and is scheduled to return to a Woodland courtroom Feb. 28 for a trial-setting conference.

According to the Sac Bee, Yolo County district attorney’s prosecutors filed the manslaughter allegations against Mark Porter as well as two felony counts of violating occupational safety or health standards causing death in a 14-page complaint in April, and Porter was held to answer to the charges on Dec. 6, according to Yolo County District Attorney’s Office.

THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE ACCIDENT WAS THE FAILURE TO SURVEY AND INSPECT THE EQUIPMENT BEING USED AND THE EQUIPMENT BEING REPAIRED – Cal-OSHA

Yolo County district attorney’s officials would not comment because the case is pending.

Porter was one of three supervisors on the site of the new Winters Road Bridge being built by Burlingame-based Disney Construction. The Porters and Hodgson were part of a crew repairing a crane that was being used as a drill rig at the site of the bridge, which spans Putah Creek and connects Yolo and Solano County.

Mark Porter’s lattice boom truck crane lifted the younger Porter and Hodgson skyward in the basket to repair and reattach a wire line atop the second drilling crane. Porter then used his crane to lower the men and pull the wire line out of the second crane. But the wire line became stuck in the drilling crane, causing a chain of events that dropped the men and their basket 80 feet to the ground, the Cal-OSHA citation read.

The criminal charges followed more than $100,000 in fines levied against Disney Construction filed after the fatal incident. Cal-OSHA officials assessed $106,110 in fines in November 2014, citing serious violations. Among them, the crane Porter used to lift the younger Porter and Hodgson was not certified for lifting and the safety latch on the hook that held the personnel basket was defective and did not lock.

A “long list of mechanical deficiencies” with the nearly 40-year-old crane used to lift the two men were also found by third-party inspectors following the incident, Cal-OSHA said in its report.

“Since the decision was made to use a crane and a personnel platform, the root cause of the accident was the failure to survey and inspect the equipment being used and the equipment being repaired,” the agency’s inspectors concluded.

Darrell Smith: @dvaughnsmith

Disney-Construction


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