OSHA probing landscaping company over death of worker at Staten Island cemetery

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The dying of a employee who, according to a blockbuster lawsuit, was fatally crushed by a tombstone at a historic Jewish cemetery on Staten Island has activated a governing administration probe.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Well being Administration (OSHA) is investigating the dying of Elvira Navarro in connection with the accidents that she allegedly endured on the grounds of Baron Hirsch Cemetery in Graniteville.

Navarro, a mother of 5 children, “was abruptly and without warning struck by a substantial slipping gravestone” on Oct. 28, 2021, in accordance to the lawsuit.

The probe was initiated the day just after the incident the employer staying inspected by the agency is Rocco’s Landscaping and Concrete Assistance LLC, based in Port Richmond, in accordance to a spokesman for OSHA.

The OSHA inspection seeks to establish what office safety specifications apply in this problem and no matter if or not the employer complied with these criteria.

If the inspection identifies violations, OSHA could challenge citations to and propose penalties for the employer, the OSHA spokesman reported

OSHA does not discuss the specifics of ongoing inspections and has up to six months to full a probe when it is initiated.

The cemetery, whilst a defendant in the lawsuit, is not the topic of the authorities probe.

A lady who answered the cellular phone for Rocco’s declined to remark.

Navarro, 58, of Port Richmond, endured trauma when a tombstone fell on her all over 2:40 p.m. on that past Thursday in October within the cemetery at 1126 Richmond Ave., the lawsuit alleges.

EMS handled Navarro on scene prior to she was transported to Richmond College Healthcare Heart in West Brighton, where by she afterwards succumbed to her injuries, in accordance to a source with expertise of the investigation.

The wrongful-dying lawsuit contends that Navarro “sustained, among other items, pre-effect terror, dread of impending damage and dying, serious injuries to her complete overall body, a significant shock to her anxious program, sure inside accidents and was brought on to undergo critical actual physical discomfort, struggling and mental anguish as a result” of the incident.

Navarro is survived by four sons, Anthony, Mark, Joseph and Gilberth Rosales, and a daughter, Sally Rosales, in accordance to the lawsuit.

A person of her sons, Anthony, “was performing upcoming to and was a witness to the horrible incident that killed his mother,” according to the lawsuit, which lists the cemetery as a defendant but not the landscaping organization.

“As a result of becoming within just the ‘zone of danger’ and witnessing his mother’s demise, Anthony Rosales sustained significant and long lasting injuries, a severe shock to his anxious system, psychological trauma and has been induced to endure extreme bodily pain and mental anguish as result thereof and, on data and belief, some or all of these injuries are everlasting and lasting character and had been expended or will develop into obligated to expend sums of dollars for medical costs,” in accordance to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges that the cemetery was negligent in retaining the house, top to Navarro’s dying.

“The aforesaid incidence was brought on and/or contributed to by the carelessness, carelessness and recklessness and the willful, wanton, reckless and grossly negligent conduct of the defendant, their agents, servants and/or workers in negligently, carelessly and recklessly protecting the cemetery and the gravestones thereat in producing, allowing and letting the cemetery to grow to be and stay in a unsafe, harmful, trap-like affliction in triggering, allowing and allowing for the gravestones thereat to turn out to be and continue being in a perilous, hazardous problem inspite of genuine and/or constructive recognize thereof in failing to solution the dangerous, hazardous conditions irrespective of actual and/or constructive see thereof in failing to independently validate that the cemetery was secure and inspected.”

A female who answered the telephone at Baron Hirsch mentioned workers have been not permitted to comment about the lawsuit.