By MOLLY CHARBONEAU

On March 11, DC 37 told the state's safety unit that nine serious citations against the city in the workplace death of Local 376 member Archie Tyler are not enough.

At an informal labor/management conference on the state's findings, the union charged the Public Employee Safety and Health unit (PESH) with failing to cite the city Dept. of Environmental Protection for one of the most serious safety lapses in the case - lack of personal protective gear that could have saved Mr. Tyler's life.

Mr. Tyler, a Watershed Maintainer, drowned in the Bronx on March 4, 2001, when rushing water pulled him down an open drainage pipe in the Jerome Avenue Reservoir. He and two co-workers were in waist-deep water, attempting to close a huge valve and clear debris. He was the third DC 37 member to die on the job at DEP since 1999.

"Had Mr. Tyler been tied with proper equipment and a harness, he would be alive today," said Lee Clarke, head of DC 37's Safety and Health Dept. "Yet there is no citation for lack of personal protective equipment. We don't know how the state can let something like that slip through."

She pointed to a report by PESH's own investigator stating, "The workers in the basin did not have the proper fall arrest equipment, nor has anyone been trained in the use of fall arrest equipment."

Wetsuit defective
Although the maker of the wet suit that DEP gave Mr. Tyler specified that it should be attached to safety lines, the PESH inspector found the suit was damaged and missing the lifeline rings.

The union also criticized the state for taking a year to issue the citations, then moving ahead without a legally required formal closing conference where the union could officially comment on the violations.

PESH management said they had ordered DEP to establish a program whereby workers are trained to safely lock out and tag dangerous equipment - such as the reservoir drain valves - so they would not need protective gear. DEP representatives admitted at the meeting that they did not have such a plan in place at the time of Mr. Tyler's death.

But Bill Quinlan, chair of the Watershed Maintainers Chapter of Local 376, said that still fell short of what's needed.

"There's no way you can tell by looking whether the reservoir valve is on or off," Mr. Quinlan said. "And there are no instructions on how many turns or in which direction you should turn to close off the valve." He said there is also no indicator on the valve, which is impossible to see when it's covered by debris in murky water - as it was the day of Mr. Tyler's death.

Ms. Clarke says the union is awaiting PESH's final decision on the violations against DEP and plans to protest officially if the agency is not cited for lack of protective equipment.