OSHA fines Huntington contractor $522,527 for safety violations following roofer's death

The U.S. Department of Labor has fined a Huntington contractor more than half a million dollars after a federal investigation found the business could have prevented the death of a roofer by following required safety protocols.

Elite Roofing Services Inc. of Huntington was issued seven violations related to fall hazards and a lack of training for workers by the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the agency said in a news release. The combined penalties resulting from the fatal accident total $522,527.

Officials with Elite Roofing could not be reached for comment. State business formation records indicate the company was formed in 2015 and list Danny Gilileo as the owner. Calls to Gilileo were not returned. An attorney representing Elite Roofing did not respond to email and phone requests seeking comment.

Noe Diaz-Gamez, 26, of Huntington Station died on April 14 while installing metal decking on a flat roof on an industrial building at 40 Garvies Point Rd. in Glen Cove, Nassau County police said earlier this year.

The roofer, who was working with five others, fell through an opening “to a concrete floor nearly 20 feet below,” the Labor Department said. Diaz-Gamez suffered severe head injuries before being airlifted by a police helicopter to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Investigators for OSHA found that the contractor did not give roofer employees protection against fall hazards, including “guardrails, safety nets, personal fall arrest systems, positioning devices or fall restraint systems,” the Labor Department said.

The company also did not train the employees on mitigating the risk of falling, according to the agency.

Elite Roofing was issued one “serious violation” for failing to train the workers, and six willful violations for the fall hazards, one for each employee working that day, including Diaz-Gamez.

“Despite knowing the risks from falls and the responsibility to safeguard its employees against them, Elite Roofing Services Inc. chose to disregard the law and the safety of its workers,” OSHA area director Kevin Sullivan in Westbury said in a statement.

“Supplying and requiring the use of fall protection equipment and training workers properly on its use can help prevent devastating consequences such as this from recurring,” Sullivan said.

Attempts to find surviving family members of Diaz-Gamez locally were unsuccessful. A GoFundMe campaign was created by Sheilin Contreras of Huntington Station to pay for his funeral and returning Diaz-Gamez's body "to his country," but the country was not named and Contreras could not be reached for comment.

Falls are the leading cause of death in the construction industry, accounting for 351 deaths out of 1,007 construction fatalities in 2020, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited by OSHA.