OSHA investigates fatal fall of construction worker
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ST. JAMES — A worker wearing a safety harness died this week of injuries received in a 40-foot fall from scaffolding inside a storage tank under construction, St. James Parish sheriff’s deputies said.
The death of Brandon Billiot, 30, of Harvey, prompted an investigation by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, federal officials said Wednesday.
Billiot was taken by helicopter to East St. James Hospital Monday morning with internal injuries but died later the same day, Capt. Sid Berthelot, sheriff’s chief of detectives, said Wednesday.
Witnesses saw Billiot fall shortly before 9:34 a.m. from the tank scaffolding at Plains Marketing LP, 6410 Plains Terminal Road, St. James, Berthelot said.
Co-workers gave Billiot cardiopulmonary resuscitation until medical help arrived, Berthelot said.
The company, now building a $150 million to $175 million tank farm in the parish, is an operating subsidiary of Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline LP, the company Web site says. A Plains Marketing spokesman did not return two messages for comment Wednesday.
Berthelot said sheriff’s investigators have determined the fall was accidental, but have not determined if Billiot’s harness was tied off.
Berthelot said the tank was incomplete and did not have a top yet.
He said Billiot was inside the tank when he fell and hit the tank’s metal flooring.
Dorinda Folse, OSHA area director for Louisiana who is based in Baton Rouge, said she could not comment on an open investigation but said one is under way.
Investigations may take up to six months to complete, at which point the findings are made public, said Elizabeth Todd, OSHA regional spokeswoman.
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