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Fatal plunge by stagehand stirs questions of safety, fines
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Vicente Rodriguez
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Las Vegas stagehand Vicente Rodriguez fell to his death from a rigging plank suspended over the MGM Grand's Hollywood Theater. If the planking had been equipped with guardrails, the 20-year-old -- who was incorrectly wearing his safety harness -- might be alive today.
The stagehand's death and the relatively small fines assessed for failing to maintain workplace safety -- imposed according to a penalty scale that has increased only once in 40 years -- are part of a national discussion about improving safety in the entertainment industry.
For their part in safety violations connected to the death in May 2009, both the stage company that employed Rodriguez and the hotel that owns the theater have been cited by the Nevada Occupational Health and Safety Administration.
MGM Grand paid a penalty of $19,800, down from a proposed penalty of $38,700, said Steve Coffield, head of Nevada OSHA.
Rhino Las Vegas, the stage company, must pay a $4,000 penalty, according to terms of a settlement reached in late May. The original fine proposed for Rhino was $25,000.
Coffield said both fines were reduced partly because of duplication of charges. Also, Rhino's fine was cut because of the company's small size.
Coffield said it is legally difficult to apply Nevada's safety regulations -- which are geared more to construction sites -- to the entertainment industry, which has grown more sophisticated with technologies that present new workplace hazards.
David Michaels, head of federal OSHA, recently discussed entertainment safety with reporters.
"The current penalty structure is too low to compel companies to take workplace safety as seriously as they should," a federal OSHA spokesman, Michael Wald, wrote to the Review-Journal this week after it inquired about Michaels' remarks. Despite inflation, the agency's penalties have increased only once in the past 40 years, Michaels told a congressional committee in March.
Occupations such as construction, offshore drilling, mining and logging are routinely viewed as dangerous, while risks to entertainment workers are not always well-publicized, Michaels told the media. Most of the public knows that an animal trainer died during a performance at SeaWorld Orlando in February, but fewer people realize Disney World also suffered several work-related fatalities last year.
On a telephone conference with reporters, Michaels talked about a Florida stagehand's death in late 2009 but did not seem to be aware of Rodriguez's death in Las Vegas, which was not coded in OSHA's database as entertainment-related.
Michaels wants to tighten national safety standards for entertainment, which Nevada's business chief, Donald Jayne, seconds. "By inference, we'll match" what the federal agency adopts, said Jayne, who is administrator for the state's Division of Industrial Relations.
Marychris Rodriguez, mother of the young Las Vegas stagehand, said Wednesday the family has been unable, for more than a year, to obtain a police report about the death. She also wants federal OSHA to investigate Nevada OSHA's investigation.
In the May 20, 2009, accident, Vicente Rodriguez fell almost 37 feet to the stage floor as crew members were tearing down stage fixtures after Tom Jones had finished a run at the MGM Grand.
Nevada OSHA's accident report, issued in September, said that in the stage area where Rodriguez fell, workers had to balance on a catwalk before they could clip a harness onto a horizontal life line. And then, they had to step over 33 inches of false ceiling, without any guardrails.
Rodriguez was wearing his safety harness improperly, but OSHA inspectors also found a risk that sharp edges on structures above the stage could sever lines attached to a harness worn correctly.
A similar stagehand fatality in Florida last December led to an OSHA fine of $3,675, which was announced several weeks ago. That accident occurred at a West Palm Beach concert hall, when a lighting technician fell 25 feet from a stage catwalk, which lacked mandatory safety rails.
OSHA can levy a maximum $70,000 civil penalty for a workplace death when willful safety violations are proved. But in 2007, the national median for OSHA fines proposed -- not necessarily the finalized amount paid -- for violations leading to a workplace death was "just $5,900," Michaels told a congressional committee in March.
Rhino's safety violations were not found to be willful, state OSHA records showed.
State officials and Marychris Rodriguez have said they will work together to develop a campaign promoting entertainment safety in Nevada, whose casinos hold many performance venues.
Contact reporter Joan Whitely at jwhitely@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0268
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@GH, This was a matter of gross negligence. The MGM Employee brought an inexperienced person into the upper rigging and reportedly turned his back on him. What other word would you use instead of negligence to describe that? If you're going to take someone up there, don't play with their lives. Make sure they're hooked up or watch them so they do it properly before you turn your back on them!
@ Steve.Bozell Because he was a student at UNLV and his family wanted to continue his memory in a positive way by helping another student.
Why does he have a scholarship fund?
Thank you Cami A. I think a big reason that this event is coming to light is because his family has pushed so hard for answers and public exposure. BTW, I meant to say grandmother. Marychris is his mother.
Lilium.Candidum hit the nail on the dot. It seems to be that this issue just wants to be covered up. I hope the part in this article about campaigning happens, for Vince.
And yes @ Joe C and Teufelshunden, Elizabeth.Rodriguez is Vicente's mother. Her words may not be grammatically correct, but they are spoken from the heart.
Vicente was charismatic, intelligent, kind and joyful young man. Even when he was alive, I never heard anyone say anything bad about this young man. He brought joy to everyone around him and touched many people. Vicente was also a student at UNLV, leaving behind a multitude of friends and family who still mourn his tragic death. There have been scholarship fundraisers and memorials honoring him.
It is disgusting to see the hand-slap that these companies have received. There is much more to the story, and I'm disappointed that the RJ did little investigative reporting. Why do the people making comments know more about what happened than what is being reported in the story? Vicente was a GROUND rigger. He had never been up on the catwalks before. I have stage-hand friends, and from what I have heard from people who were there, was that Vicente fell close to 40ft after being pressured to go up there by a Rhino supervisor, even though the supervisor knew Vicente had not been properly trained. To add insult to injury, his father was notified of his son's death by word of mouth from other workers, not by the company or hotel. And to top it off, OSHA showed up 3 1/2 hours after the accident occurred. I would also like to know why was there nothing in the RJ about this atrocity when it occurred in May of 2009? It was discussed in the message board back in June of 2009 when Ms. Whitely wrote an article about the Luxor installing safety barriers. It really seems like the whole incident was covered up. But at least it is in the papers now. A small condolence for such a great loss. RIP Vicente.
Anyone who would like to donate to Vicente's scholarship fund can do so by sending a check to: Vicente Rodriquez Scholarship Fund, Catheryn D'Andrea, Vice President, Irwin Union Bank, 401 N. Buffalo Dr., Suite 200, Las Vegas, NV, 89145.
Unfortunately accidents happen, on jobs with no regulatiosn and on jobs with the best safety regulations in the world freak accidents still happen.
I'm not trying to minimize the death of this young man in any way, I just think it's important to remember that every accident isn't always the result of gross negligence or lack of personal accountability.
The sad truth is most accidents are easily preventable when we analyze the events after the fact, that's why they are called accidents.
I do not know if Rhino provided Vicente with fall arrest training, but I do know that there were several other fall arrest certified MGM employees on the clock that night. They had been assigned to other duties. It is true that he was a ground rigger sent into the catwalks. Had there been some way to quickly assess the skills and training of each crew member, maybe a more experienced employee would have been sent upstairs and this could have been prevented.
Labor companies such as Rhino rate the job skills of their employees in order to send out a crew with the specific skills for each job/call/show. They need a system to rate the safety training of their employees as well. However, "training" cannot mean taking a class and passing a quiz at the end, "training" should mean that they've taken the class and been given the opportunity to apply that information in real world situations. There is a total lack of this kind of education in the industry. Many, many individuals new to this unique and sometimes dangerous field are sent out with little to no training, and what training they do have is often ineffective. OSHA should take a look at that.
Joe - Maybe my statement wasn't as clear as it should have been. OSHA can fine an employer if an employee has been killed, even if: the employee was trained, the employee willfully violated the rules, the employee was reprimanded for violating safety rules, and was retrained. The first step in fixing OSHA is to fine individuals as well as companies. It will never happen though, due to the labor unions. Well, I would have known Elizabeth's relation to this matter if she would have paid attention in elementary school.