Georgia company cited, fined in fatal worker fall during 1-16/1-75 project in Macon

A company whose construction worker fell more than 30 feet from a new bridge near Interstate 16 and Spring Street in September has been cited by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

C.W. Matthews Contracting Co. was initially cited for three serious violations and fined $40,482, according to an online OSHA inspection summary. The fine was reduced to $23,000 and one of the violations dropped as part of settlement negotiations.

Sept. 6, Jason Searcy, 45, of Ivey, was working for C.W. Mathews Contracting Co. on a bridge construction near the I-16 eastbound off ramp when he fell into a ravine. He died more than a week later at a Macon hospital.

When deputies arrived, Searcy was “laying prone in a ravine” with a pool of blood surrounding his head, according to a Bibb County Sheriff’s Office incident report. His hard hat and a piece of metal decking were lying about 5 feet from his body, the report said.

One of Searcy’s co-workers told deputies that Searcy was carrying a piece of wood when a piece of metal decking he was walking on “gave way,” the report said.

“On or about 9/6/2020, at Emory Highway, Bridge Span 17-18, in Macon, GA: Employees working from a bridge about 34 feet above the ground with an engineered personal fall arrest system which was not adequately designed to be also used as a guardrail system exposing the employees to a fall hazard,” according to the OSHA inspection summary.

Searcy died Sept. 17 in the surgical trauma intensive care unit at the Medical Center, Navicent Health.

Other C.W. Mathews workers have died on Georgia roads, according to OSHA’s website. Two were in 2016 and one in 2010.

Sheldon Fram, director of risk management for Marietta-based C.W. Matthews, declined comment.

Telegraph archives were used in this report.

This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 9:50 AM.