Las Vegas NowNevada OSHA Under Fire

Nevada OSHA Under Fire

Federal officials say Nevada OSHA is failing to protect workers. Those concerns were the topic on Capitol Hill where new proposals are aimed at saving workers' lives.

A review of Nevada OSHA was launched after 25 construction workers were killed in the state between January 2008 and June 2009. Twelve of those deaths were on the Las Vegas Strip.

The federal probe revealed that Nevada OSHA weakened penalties against a major hotel firm after two workers died at the Orleans Hotel, despite a history of similar problems at the company.

The mother of one of those victims, Debi Koehler-Fergen, testified that Nevada OSHA and Boyd Gaming failed her son and other workers around the state. "My son trusted his employers. He never would have dreamt that he would be called upon to intentionally be put in a deadly situation," she said. "Nevada OSHA cannot continue to buckle under these political pressures and needs to stand up and send the clear message that the game is over and issue the citations and fines that prove it."

A third worker was seriously hurt in that accident. David Snow is still recovering two years later. He believes the tragedy could have been prevented.

Snow remembers vividly jumping in that manhole to save his friend Rick Luzier. Snow, Luzier and Travis Koehler were overcome by to the toxic fumes in that sewer tank. Only Snow survived.

A federal investigation of Nevada's OSHA program is news Snow has been waiting to hear. It was a typical February day for the three men until an underground grease tank malfunctioned at the Orleans Casino. The three engineers were told to fix it. "They decided that untrained, inexperienced, unequipped engineers were going to handle this problem," he said.

Luzier had only been working there for two weeks.

Snow says a licensed pumping company should have done the work. "We shouldn't have popped those manhole covers at all. That's where the violation standards began," said Snow.

Luzier was told to go into the hole with only a flashlight and a saw. "Rick Luzier cuts the pipe and 200 times the human tolerable allowances of hydrogen sulfide and methanes and raw sewage blast him in the face, killing him instantly," said Snow.

Koehler and Snow go in after him and both pass out from toxic fumes. "Nurses and doctors could only spend five minutes in the quarantine room I was in because of the toxic gases that were being released from my system," he said.

Snow says he still has nightmares about that day. "This goes through my mind every waking moment. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about my friend and what I could have done differently," he said.

Since that day back in 2007, Snow has had trouble adjusting back into work life. He's been let go from several jobs and is now disabled after hit and run motorcycle accident in August.