Federal safety regulators have recently cited a Brooklyn Rite Aid for several health and safety violations which may have exposed customers and workers to serious personal injuries.
Officials from The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration say that the store failed an inspection by OSHA’s Manhattan Area Office which uncovered the safety violations. The Brooklyn Rite Aid faces $111,000 in proposed penalties and fines for a variety of dangerous conditions including boxes stacked on stair edges and unsecured piles of boxes that could have collapsed. It is unclear whether these conditions impacted customers or only workers.
“These conditions endangered workers to potential falls, crushing injuries and an encumbered emergency exit,” said Kay Gee, OSHA’s area director for Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. “Having experienced similar conditions in other stores, Rite Aid should take action to identify and effectively eliminate hazards at all its workplaces.”
Unsafe conditions at New York area stores are fairly common and can result in a variety of slip and fall-related injuries. An experienced premises liability lawyer can help injured customers and some injured workers get the compensation they deserve from stores which fail to remedy dangerous conditions on their property. Customers who are injured in a slip and fall accident often have their credibility questioned, which is why it is important to take photos of an accident scene and thoroughly document an incident.
Source: OSHA, “US Labor Department’s OSHA cites Rite Aid for fall, crushing, exit and electrical hazards at 3rd Avenue store in Brooklyn, NY,” Region 2 News Release: 12-937-NEW/BOS 2012-079, May 16, 2012