A Nanuet-based construction company has been cited for two serious violations in relation to a December wall collapse that killed two workers in Orange County.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently concluded its six-month-long investigation into the wall collapse at a Maybrook, N.Y. property owned by Halmar International, a company with strong roots in Rockland and the Lower Hudson Valley.
Halmar, which has offices on Route 59, was cited for two serious violations of workplace safety standards at the site where its employees were building replica retaining walls for a project to link the Catskill and Delaware aqueducts.
The first violation was issued because three braces to support the formwork that workers were pouring concrete into were missing, leading the structure to collapse, according to the citation notice.
The second violation was issued for not having the drawings for the formwork on the construction site at 918 Homestead Ave., Maybrook.
"Serious" violations are issued for hazardous conditions that could result in death or serious physical harm in substantial probability.
Each violation at the Halmar site carries a $7,000 fine, the maximum amount for a serious violation.
OSHA fines are based on the cited hazardous conditions and not related to an injury or fatality that occurred as a result, Edmund Fitzgerald, an OSHA spokesman, said.
Halmar has until June 20 to respond.
Chris Larsen, a principal of Halmar International, said Friday afternoon that he would not comment because he hadn't seen the actual citations.
The accident happened about 12:25 p.m. on Dec. 2. Timothy Lang, 53, of Saugerties, N.Y., died after being pinned beneath the concrete retaining wall. Scott Winkler, 50, of Monroe, N.Y., was critically injured and airlifted to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla. He died after being hospitalized for about a week.
Halmar, which reached a $5,000 settlement with OSHA in 2012 after contesting two serious safety violations at a Manhattan construction site in March 2011, has been under contract with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection to complete the $21.2 million aqueduct project.
The DEP press office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment late Friday afternoon.