13 years ago our family moved to North Avondale. Not long after, we realized the roof needed repairs and we couldn’t afford to keep the beautiful clay tiles. We hired a company to replace them. Neither my husband nor I were home during the day when they did the work.
During COVID, we were working from home and then could see work being done in several of the roofs in our neighborhood. About the same time, I learned about the terrible statistics that show that falls from roofs lead in the number of fatalities and serious injuries among construction workers.
The rate of Hispanic workers who die from falling is usually 50% higher than their non-Hispanic peers. Most of the roof work being done in north Avondale, probably like it was done in my own house, did not seem to use any fall protection equipment.
Homeowners like me are likely unaware that they are the ones who can make a difference and avoid terrible consequences in cases of a fall from a roof when negotiating a contract for roof work.
For this reason, I volunteered to organize a talk at the NANA general meeting by a colleague who is an expert on fall prevention, and an approachable and engaging speaker.
His talk will be at the NANA general meeting on October 10. The meeting starts at 6:30pm and the presentation follows the NANA business meeting. I hope you will attend and bring your questions about what you can do to promote safe working conditions as well as your liability in case of a serious injury or fatality from unsafe practices.
For more information see https://www.cpwr.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/Roofs-Fact-Sheet.pdf
Contributor: Thais Morata (Beechwood)
