WALSH VOICES WORK-SAFETY ‘CONCERNS’
Remarks follow job site deaths
Mayor Martin J. Walsh said he’s concerned that some of the construction work going on in Boston is not being done with safety in mind, after the deaths of two men Friday when a construction trench they were working in on Dartmouth Street was flooded by a ruptured water main.
“I think there are some concerns I have, certainly. I see a lot of work going on in our city right now and some of the work I see, there’s a lot of safety precaution taken,” Walsh told reporters at City Hall yesterday afternoon. “I see some other work in the city as I go around, mostly on private development, where there’s no safety precaution going on.”
Atlantic Drain Services Inc., the Roslindale company for which Kelvin “Chuck” Mattocks, 53, of Brockton and Robert “Robbie” Higgins, 47, of Warren, R.I., were working as private contractors, has nearly a decade’s worth of safety violations that have resulted in more than $140,000 in fines.
Walsh said the city can’t tell developers which contractors to hire.
“It’s a free society and we can’t tell private people who to hire and who not to hire,” he said. “If they have a valid license to do this work, there is not a lot we can do.”
Citing ongoing investigations by the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Walsh said he could not comment on the incident, but looks forward to “making his feelings known” once the probes are completed.
“It’s certainly a very sad situation, two people lost their life here in our city,” Walsh said. “I spoke to both their families, offered my condolences on behalf of the city. They are devastated.”