Gustavo Enrique Ramirez, a high school junior, was working a summer job at a Nashville construction site in June when he fell to his death from scaffolding raised 120 feet in the air.
At the age of 16, Gustavo is too young to paint at ceiling level, in accordance with the Child Labour Regulations of occupational protection and fitness administration.
Contractors overseeing parts of the 11-story La Quinta Inn and Suites’ assignment said Gustavo’s death was a “tragic accident,” and everyone said that some other company was ultimately guilty for securing Gustavo’s protection at the scene.
Gustavo’s circle of relatives says his death was due to the alleged negligence of structured corporations and others involved in the project.
In a civil lawsuit filed in Davidson County on July 22, Gustavo’s parents, Gustavo Ramirez and Sharon Sheila Ramirez, and their 18-year-old brother, Joshua Ramirez, allege that the assignment was plagued by failed protective measures, harmful use of appliances, and lack of proper oversight.
“Gustavo’s death would have happened without the defendant’s manifestly negligent, reckless and planned conduct,” the defendant says.
The culpable homicide trial, which seeks monetary reimbursement for loss of life, funeral expenses, and emotional distress, names several defendants, including:
Gustavo and Joshua Ramirez arrived at the site early on June 23. The scaffolding near the roof point that day, according to the demand, and Gustavo and Joshua Ramirez were part of a team hired through Stover-Sons that ran at the outer end of the building’s most sensitive.
An area of approximately 2 feet separated the scaffolding from the appearance of the building, and a column on the left side of the construction blocked one of the scaffolding stabilizers, intended to supply more floorboards, to enlarge it completely, leaving a space of three feet. area around the column.
Gustavo, Joshua Ramirez and other workers, none of whom used harnesses, “came and went regularly between scaffolding and construction when they worked on the floor, without reducing scaffolding,” the demand says. “In other words, they crossed in the air, up to 120 feet above sea level, between construction and scaffolding.”
When the scaffolding was near the ceiling level, the structure staff also climbed onto the scaffold, jumping above the ceiling threshold.
Higinio Sánchez-González, foreman of Stover and Sons, was available “almost every single day” to oversee the paintings made through the employees of Stover and Sons, according to the demand. City. Chase also had an assigned superintendent and a foreman on the site every and every day, tracking protection and progress, the company said. But according to the lawsuit, none of those Americans informed staff that the practice was dangerous.
Yes D.F. Chase workers had detected safety issues, promptly notifying Stover and Sons, Dennis Gregory, D.F.’s president. Chase, he wrote in The Tennessean.
After lunch, Gustavo and other staff members returned to the roof to get on the scaffolding. Gustavo drove to the edge of the roof, but his feet failed on the platform and landed in the area surrounding the column.
“His entire body slipped through the large gap,” the lawsuit states. “Joshua saw his brother fall through the gap in the platform, recalling the last image of Gustavo’s arm slipping quickly through the hole.”
Stories fell.
Ramirez’s circle of relatives says D.F. Chase, Stover – Sons, Sanchez-Gonzalez and EZ Scaffold did not provide enough safety, fall coverage education and failed to take steps to place a canopy or place a barrier around the gap.
Gustavo began running on the La Quinta Inn and Suites site last May, shortly after his family circle moved to Springfield, Tennessee, Kentucky. According to the demand, he recruited him to the post through Sánchez-González, who is also a pastor at Casa de Oración, where Ramírez’s circle of relatives attended church.
Stover – Sons Contractors subtreated through General Contractor D.F. Continue with the exterior paintings of the building.
Joshua Ramírez had worked in the past with Sánchez-González under Stover and Sons, from the age of 16, according to the demand. Gustavo first worked on a site with the company in March 2019 when he was 15, the lawsuit says.
But Donnie Stover, co-owner of Stover and Sons, said he had never met Gustavo or his circle of relatives and did not know that anyone under the age of 18 was running for his company in the La Quinta Inn and Suites project. Gustavo, he said, hired through a company called Cortes Plastering, which Stover-Sons hired as a subcontractor to carry out the final work.
Stover said he “didn’t see any truth” in the three pages of the 15-page document he read before he decided he had enough.
But no company called “Cortes Plastering” holds an advertising license in Tennessee, according to public records reviewed through The Tennessean. Stover stated that his company ensured that all of its subcontractors had a valid advertising license, adding Cortes Plastering, but not the lack of records of a company of that call on the website of the Secretary of State.
Companies with names, one of which has a valid advertising license, did not respond to requests for comments. Attempts to locate Cortés Plastering’s coordinates failed.
Stover said he didn’t know Sanchez-González knew Gustavo outside of work, but that he knew Sanchez-González was a pastor. Multiple attempts to succeed in Sánchez-González failed and the messages left in the Casa De Oración church were unanswered.
City. Chase told Tennessean that Stover and Sons had hired Cortes Plastering as a subcontractor for breach of contract, and D.F. Chase did not know that Cortes Plastering was running on the site until after Gustavo’s death.
“This is an unthinkable tragedy, and our mind is with Ramirez’s circle of relatives at this complicated time,” Gregory wrote. “D.F. Chase, Inc. has done nothing wrong. We have continually asked for data on Mr. Ramirez’s death in Stover and Sons and Cortes Plastering.”
The company intends to oppose the lawsuit, Gregory added.
Stover claimed that Cortes Plastering was ultimately guilty of Gustavo’s protection on the site, and EZ Scaffold, the company that provided the mast climbing scaffold for the project, was guilty of safely equipping and certifying all personnel who would use it, adding Gustavo. City. Chase demonstrated that Gustavo had won the EZ Scaffold certification to use and operate the mechanical elevator.
According to the U.S. Labor Decompotor, young people under the age of 18 may not use or be transported in motorized forklifts and scaffold paints on or near the roof line. An exception is made for those over the age of 16 who are part of a valid learning program, courts plastering may not be able to be contacted to verify or deny Gustavo’s participation in an apprenticeship.
EZ Scaffold responded to several requests for comment.
Ramirez’s circle of relatives did not come with Cortes Plastering in the lawsuit because they don’t think it’s a valid business, said Karla M. Campbell, a member of the legal team at the family circle in Tennessean. Campbell testified that Gustavo thought he was running for Stover and Sons.
“We have no indication that (Gustavo) even knew that (Cortes Plastering) not even an entity that existed,” he says.
Site fall prevention and protection is monitored and enforced through TOSHA, the Tennessee Occupational Health and Safety Administration.
Falls are one of the leading reasons for structure-related deaths in the United States, and account for more than part of the 107 deaths in the first quarter of 2019, according to a number of 2019 structure deaths. Nashville is known for its “alarming” injury rate among the structure’s staff, according to a 2017 build to Better South report. In 2016 and 2017, 10 employees of structures died from falls in Nashville in.
TOSHA requires workers running at altitudes of 6 feet or more to pass through a harness, railing formula, or safety net.
Stover indicated that the platform used on the site had a TOSHA-approved railing system, so staff were not required to use harnesses. He, D.F. Chase and EZ Scaffold agreed that the scaffolding is safe, he said.
The area or gap described through the test is also covered by OSHA regulations to prevent falls, which require protective measures to prevent your personnel from walking or falling through gaps. All gaps over 6 feet above lift should be covered or blocked by a railing if staff do not wear a harness.
TOSHA said the site for the return of staff after Gustavo’s death. THE TOSHA Labor and Management Standards Unit has launched an investigation into the incident. The investigation can take up to six months, according to a TOSHA spokesperson.
Nashville officials, state officials, and protection advocates called for stricter protection needs and more difficult consequences for breaches of the structure site in the days after Gustavo’s death.
State Rep. Mike Stewart, a Nashville Democrat, said at a news convention in July that Gustavo was too young to paint at such heights and that he needed that duty.
“Needless to say, if someone falls 120 feet, or there are no adequate protections in their position or a harness is needed,” Stewart said. “It’s a ridiculous suggestion that a teenager simply falls 120 feet into a structure site and that site administrators followed all the rules.”
Campbell, one of the lawyers for the Ramirez family, said the component of the lawsuit is part of the family’s efforts to secure some form of justice for his son. But the claims opposed to D.F. Chase and Stover-Sons mistook a Tennessee law that protects employers from civil attacks from office injuries, unless the opposition’s suggestion may result in the employer acting with “genuine intent to injure.”
The prosecution argues that this provision is unconstitutional and violates the right to a jury’s attempt.
Ramírez’s circle of relatives seeks compensation for the anxiety, panic attacks and seizures they suffered after Gustavo’s death, according to the lawsuit, which also alleges that Stover-Sons employees, adding Sanchez-González, tried to convince the circle of relatives to forge the main points surrounding his death. Since then, the circle of relatives has had to move to a new city.
Stover said he was unaware of any contact between Stover & Sons employees and the Ramirez family.
After Gustavo’s death, D.F. Chase asked Stover and Sons to make sure those on the scaffold had harnesses, Stover said.
Stover coordinated with EZ Scaffold and Cortes Plastering to supply harnesses to those staff so that they can simply “tie” with protective ropes, Stover pressed that this step was not mandatory on a scaffolding that has good enough railings.
“We have double security now,” Stover said. “We have a scaffolding on which it can be completely detached, and we have joined them.”
Contact Cassandra Stephenson at [email protected] or (731) 694-7261. Follow Cassandra on Twitter at CStephenson731.