$67,000 In Fines Over Teen's Death

A Des Moines window-washing company has been fined more than $67,000 for violating numerous worker-safety laws in the death last August of a 15-year-old employee, the state Department of Labor and Industries announced yesterday.

Brian Schwartz of Tukwila, who was working as a window washer for Olympic Window Cleaning, died Aug. 21 after he fell four stories from the roof of the Northgate Medical Building. Another worker also was injured in the accident.

Labor and Industries (L&I) determined Olympic Window Cleaning violated eight safety regulations, including two willful violations, meaning the employer knowingly violated the rules or was indifferent to the violation.

L&I also found Olympic Window Cleaning in violation of two minor-worker laws for employing Schwartz and another teenager to perform tasks forbidden under minor-worker laws. They were fined $2,000 for each teen, and their permit for minors was revoked.

The willful violations, which L&I spokesman Steve Valandra called the most serious, will cost the company $28,000 each. Those violations include failure to provide training to handle scaffold anchoring, harnesses and personal-protection equipment; and failure to ensure the worker lifelines were securely attached to the building, not the scaffolding.

The company also was fined $7,200 for failing to ensure the scaffold was rigged correctly, failure to ensure the scaffold was not moved laterally while it was in use and failure to prepare and

use a formal written accident-prevention program tailored to the workplace.

The company also was operating as a painter contractor without a license, but has since obtained one.

The company, owned by Jeffery W. Rogers, has 15 days to appeal the penalties. Rogers, of Des Moines, could not be reached yesterday for comment. A phone number for the company provided by L&I had been disconnected.

Schwartz, who would have been a sophomore at Foster High School in Tukwila, and coworker Douglas Copeland, 36, were apparently tethered to a scaffolding, with Schwartz on the roof and Copeland on the scaffolding, when the equipment gave way.

Schwartz fell to his death, and Copeland suffered serious leg and hip injuries.

"The employer knew there were problems and did nothing to correct them," Valandra said. "Had those problems not existed, perhaps the teenager would still be alive today."

Schwartz had only been on the job for two weeks when the accident occurred.

Tamra Fitzpatrick's phone message number is 206-464-8981. Her e-mail address is: tfitzpatrick@seattletimes.com