Modesto issues last report in city employee’s electrocution, fires one of the co-workers
Modesto has wrapped up its investigation of the April 2018 on-the-job death of electrician assistant Tyrone Darnell Hairston by releasing a final report and firing one of his co-workers.
City spokesman Thomas Reeves said Modesto expects to terminate electrician Ricardo Lacerda’s employment as soon as this week. Reeves said Hairston’s other co-worker, electrician Allen Garan, retired effective Monday. Garan’s and Lacerda’s supervisor, Rodney Nelson, retired in August.
And that is where the discipline ends in a death that underscored citywide shortcomings in worker safety and resulted in Modesto refocusing its efforts on safety, including hiring a safety officer and increasing spending on training and equipment.
“We have reviewed the full report and have found it to be thorough and fair, and based on the findings in this report, the city has found that no additional disciplinary action is warranted against supervisors or managers still employed by the city,” City Manager Joe Lopez wrote in an email to city employees about the final report.
(Click here for final report)
Hairston’s father — Tyrone Alfonso Hairston — said that while he appreciates the city’s efforts to improve safety, it did not go far enough in holding employers higher in the chain of command accountable for his son’s death.
“It seems like they were going to cut this off (the investigation) before it got to the head,” Hairston said.
Modesto in April of this year placed Lacerda, Garan and Nelson on paid leave pending administrative hearings and potential discipline and released the first two reports into Hairston’s death.
Hairston, 30, was electrocuted April 8, 2018, as he and his two co-workers were installing a streetlight pole with a mast arm near high-voltage lines at Roselle and Floyd avenues. They were using a type of crane to maneuver the pole in place as Hairston held the base of the pole.
He was electrocuted when the pole spun out of control and its mast arm touched power lines. Hairston was wearing cloth gloves and not high-voltage rated gloves, which one of the reviews identified as a factor in his death. The city’s first two reviews detailed severe deficiencies in training, safety measures and other critical areas.
For instance, one of the reviews found that electricians were only receiving on-the-job training in installing streetlight poles and the city did not require employees to be certified to operate cranes and similar equipment.
Modesto released the results of its final investigation Tuesday, which looked at the city’s Traffic Electrical Division. Hairston, Garan, Lacerda and Nelson worked for the division. The investigation did not cover new ground.
But it did go higher up the division’s chain of command by including traffic engineer Jeff Barnes and traffic operations engineer Mark Murphy in some of its findings.
The investigation said that while employees had received safety trainings, it also “found serious failings by the supervisors in providing certain safety-related policies, procedures and Personal Protective Equipment to Hairston and his co-workers,” Lopez wrote in his email to employees.
“The investigation makes clear that although certain policies and procedures existed,” Lopez wrote, “they were not being consistently followed, and that is a key driving force in changes being made across the entire organization.”
Barnes and Murphy no longer work for the city. Barnes retired in May 2018 after nearly 40 years with Modesto, and Murphy retired this last June after nearly 34 years with the city. Barnes, Murphy, Lacerda, Garan and Nelson could not be reached for comment or did not respond to requests for comment.
Tyrone Alfonso Hairston said Public Works Director Bill Sandhu — who was Barnes’ boss — should have faced accountability in his son’s death, especially because Modesto had policies and guidelines in place for worker safety but was not following them.
Reeves, the city spokesman, reiterated Lopez’s comments that the final inquiry into Hairston’s death was thorough and complete.
This has been an expensive undertaking for Modesto. Reeves said it cost the city $165,707 to put the three employees on paid leave, which included their salaries and benefits. Modesto’s investigation consisted of three inquiries, two of which were done by law firms.
Reeves said those two inquiries are expected to cost the city about $110,000. He said the third inquiry, called the Serious Accident Review Team, was conducted by officials from the city as well as from nearby government agencies and private industry who volunteered their time.
While Modesto has completed its investigation, it still has pending state action.
The state Division of Occupational Safety and Health, better known as Cal/OSHA, issued four citations and a $39,750 penalty in August 2018 against Modesto for safety violations in the accident. Modesto is appealing, but that is on hold while Cal/OSHA’s Bureau of Investigations continues to conduct its own investigation of Hairston’s death.
Bureau investigations can result in a referral to prosecutors for criminal charges against the employer, which in this case would be Modesto, based on an investigation’s findings.
This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 5:42 PM.
