Contractor Fires Four After N.M. Jobsite Beer Drinking Death

A New Mexico construction worker fell to his death last week at a bridge reconstruction project in Gallup after allegedly engaging in onsite beer drinking with several co-workers. Bennie Duboise, 31, had a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit April 23 when he plunged 20 ft from a beam to the pavement, according to police. Rescuers rushed him to the hospital, were he died of his injuries. .

By Scott Blair

Police arrested foreman Leonard Yazzie and charged him with driving while intoxicated after he left the scene in a company pickup truck.

Dave Krueger, president of Albuquerque-based contractor A.S. Horner Inc., says that Yazzie and another worker were immediately fired, along with two welding subcontractors. Horner is the general contractor on the $2.86 million highway and bridge project along several miles of Interstate 40.

Gov. Bill Richardson (D) released a statement directing the New Mexico Dept. of Transportation to shut down work at the project, review all contracts and “explore appropriate action, including termination.”

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“With all we’ve done to combat drunk driving and alcohol in this state, this behavior is unacceptable,” Richardson says. “I want to be sure that the contractor is held accountable.”

In addition, the state’s Environment Department’s Occupational Health and Safety Bureau, Gallup Police and OMI are also conducting investigations.

“This is a very unfortunate incident and our heart goes out to the family that lost their loved one,” says Larry Maynard, District 6 engineer with NMDOT. “It certainly was preventable and we want to make sure that in the future nothing like this occurs again. We have very stringent zero tolerance policies on every project.”

Krueger says the accident occurred two hours after the shift ended, not in the course of construction activities. “We are going to redouble our efforts to make sure this doesn’t happen again. It was an isolated incident and we want to make sure it stays that way.”

A.S. Horner performs work in excess of $70 million annually, with a substantial portion for the NMDOT on bridge and roadway projects. Last year the contractor successfully completed another I-40 bridge reconstruction in Albuquerque in only 90 working days.

The firm has a drug and alcohol policy which prohibits any impairment during the workday, and includes pre-hire, random and for-cause drug testing. “We will reassess our policy and certainly emphasize that any impairment situations are not allowed on the project, during work hours or after,” Krueger says.

The firm also performs background checks on new hires, but Yazzie’s license did not show up as suspended, Krueger says, despite news reports alleging this was his sixth alcohol-related offense. “In general, people in our situation do not readily have access to that type of information.”

Maynard says that while A.S. Horner works on the majority of projects in his district, they have never had a major safety violation before. According to Krueger, the firm has a rate of recordable incidence of 1.74, better than the national average of 6.3 among equally-sized highway and bridge construction contractors. The firm’s experience modification ratio is .65.
 
“You can never become complacent with safety, no matter how much effort and good results you have,” Krueger says. “It requires constant vigilance. You can never let your guard down.”

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