BERNE — The Berne Highway Department is no longer in violation of New York State Department of Labor safety standards, according to newly obtained investigation documents, closing out a dark chapter that began late last year with the death of highway employee Peter Becker after a workplace accident. 

On the morning of Oct. 21, 2020, Becker was working on a municipal dump truck supported by a pneumatic jack at the town highway garage when the truck suddenly fell, crushing Becker. A subsequent investigation by the Department of Labor’s Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau uncovered seven “serious” violations related to the accident, including lack of employee training, lack of established safety procedures, and lack of periodic inspections. 

The Enterprise recently received a full investigation report from the Department of Labor that shows all seven violations were corrected by April 14 this year, when the state conducted its final inspection. The report was obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request made in January of this year.

According to the report, the Berne Highway Department supplied the state with employee training logs, direct verification from highway employees that they received training and implemented safety procedures, photographic evidence that safety procedures were now being followed, and copies of the required safety programs developed by the town.

Highway Superintendent Randy Bashwinger could not be reached for comment.

Further detail

Altogether, the 88-page report gives a comprehensive overview of both Becker’s accident and the ensuing investigation, laying out the timeline of the accident. 

According to the report, while Becker was working on the dump truck the morning of Oct. 21, Bashwinger — who at that point worked mornings at the Albany County Board of Elections — called Becker around 8:15 a.m. to let him know about a downed tree in the area. The employee who took the call informed Deputy Superintendent Ed Hampton, who apparently told Becker he could continue working on the truck while the other worker took care of the tree. 

Hampton left the garage to handle another matter before the other worker left at 8:26 a.m. to handle the tree, the report states. Becker was crushed sometime between 8:26 and 8:29, when the highway clerk arrived on site and “heard some sounds” coming from where the truck was. The clerk called 9-1-1 and left to retrieve a member of the local fire department who lived across the street, the report says.

After this story was published online, Bashwinger, who initially could not be reached for comment, called The Enterprise to contest the sequence of events, among other things. 

“Ed Hampton did not tell Mr. Becker to continue working on the truck because he was not here,” Bashwinger said this week. “Pat Stempel was here. He’s one of our other workers. So there was two people here.” 

Bashwinger added that he had called Becker directly about the tree. 

After the call, The Enterprise cross-checked Bashwinger’s assertion with the report, which says: “The Deputy Highway Superintendent entered the garage and [redacted] informed him that the Highway Superintendent had just called about a tree being down on Long Road. [Redacted] requested that he be allowed to remain back at the garage to continue working on his truck while a coworker responded to the downed tree. The Deputy Highway Superintendent reported giving [redacted] permission to remain at the highway garage to continue working on his truck and directing the other employee to go take care of the tree. The Deputy Highway Superintendent then left the premises ….”

Context from the report and from Bashwinger indicates that the redacted name is Becker.

Bashwinger could not be reached again to settle the contradiction.

Investigators later found that the truck keys were in the ignition, and that the “knob for the parking brake was pressed all the way in,” when to engage the parking brake it must be pulled out, the report says.

By January, the state Department of Labor issued the following seven violations related to the accident, each one labeled “serious”:

— “Procedures were not developed, documented and utilized for the control of potentially hazardous energy when employees were engaged in activities covered by this section”;

— “The employer did not conduct a periodic inspection of the energy control procedure at least annually to ensure that the procedure and the requirement of this standard were being followed”;

— “Authorized employee(s) did not receive training in the recognition of applicable hazardous energy sources, the type and magnitude of the energy available in the workplace, and the methods and means necessary for energy isolation”;

— “The machine or equipment was not turned off or shut down using the procedures established for the machine or equipment”;

— “All energy isolating devices that were needed to control the energy to the machine or equipment were not physically located and operated in such a manner as to isolate the machine or equipment from the energy source(s)”;

— “Lockout or tagout devices were not affixed to each energy isolating device by authorized employees”; and

— “Loads were not cribbed, blocked, or otherwise secured immediately after being raised with a jack.”

The investigation found that the highway employees were given lockout/tagout training in Westerlo in 2015, but that the training was not specific to Berne vehicles, rendering it “deficient,” according to the report. Further, the only entry in the highway department’s “lockout log” was dated May 10, 2016. 

The report shows that, between the issuance of the violations and their abatement a few months later, the highway department was in regular contact with the state to keep the department informed of its progress, and that an “informal conference” was held in March to discuss the violations. 

Fallout

Becker’s death triggered an outpouring of grief from the Hilltown community and beyond, owing in part to Becker’s prominence on the Hill as a former fire chief.

Along with that grief came significant criticism of Bashwinger, who is chairman of the county GOP and formerly chaired the Berne Republican Committee, from town Democrats, who argued that his work with the county Board of Elections prevented him from properly managing his highway employees. 

Bashwinger had his defenders, though, in people like Westerlo Councilman Richard Filkins, a Republican and former mechanic-supervisor, who asserted in a letter to the Enterprise editor that Becker would have known the risks and that Bashwinger “can work what hours he deems necessary to get the work done.” 

Bashwinger no longer works with the county board of elections as of July 22, according to Democratic Commissioner Kathleen Donovan. 

The accident also figured into Berne’s primary election this year, in which Town Clerk Anita Clayton, a Democrat running on the Conservative and Republican lines for an open town board seat, challenged Democrat Timothy Lippert. 

When asked by the Enterprise about town board oversight of other town departments, Clayton defended Bashwinger, who is seeking re-election this year,  and decried the politicization of Becker’s death.

“The issues with the building at the highway department did not start with this administration,” Clayton told The Enterprise in June. “These safety issues and the condition of that highway department have been in existence for a very, very long time. And, again, there is talk of hopefully redoing that whole highway department, which I think is essential because that is such a huge operating department in your town that does need to be addressed. I don’t think the issues there were in direct fault for what happened with Peter, and again, that is just a horrible thing to be using.” 

Lippert, meanwhile, said that while “there isn’t a one of these [highway] guys that you couldn’t just turn loose,” on an assignment, they still require “some sort of oversight, some direction to start their day.”

Both, however, ultimately agreed that more oversight would be beneficial.