Company penalized for window washer’s fall

A Redwood City window washing company was hit with $12,765 in penalties Wednesday for five safety hazards that led to a worker plummeting 11 stories in San Francisco’s Financial District late last year, according to the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health.

Cal/OSHA announced its investigation into Century Window Cleaning ended with five citations, including two serious citations, along with the proposed penalty. Century has the opportunity to appeal the citations.

The window washer, 58-year-old Pedro Perez, survived the Nov. 21 fall but suffered extensive brain trauma and internal hemorrhaging, as well as a fractured pelvis, broken arm, and a ruptured artery in his right arm when he landed on a moving car, according to his family.

Perez was on the roof of the 11-story building at 400 Montgomery St. at about 10 a.m. when he was moving an extension cord on a suspended scaffold around the corner of the roof. In the process, he disconnected the lanyard of his fall protection equipment, according to Cal/OSHA.

He then lost his balance and fell over the edge of the roof.

Cal/OSHA found the company had failed to secure the roof with fall protection equipment and provided inadequate training for using the equipment.

It’s not the first time the company was cited. Complaints against the company led to penalties of $2,720 for violations in 2008, according to Cal/OSHA.

“While it is miraculous that this man survived a fall from this height, his fall is an essential reminder that employers are required to provide protections from the hazards of high elevation work,” state Department of Industrial Relations Director Christine Baker said in a statement.

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