CONTROLLED DEMOLITION, INC.

According to U.S. Department of Labor enforcement records, CONTROLLED DEMOLITION, INC. — a industry sector 00 facility located at MITCHELL & PLANT ROADS, MEMPHIS, TN 38109 — was the subject of a formal OSHA inspection that resulted in 12 citation(s) and cumulative proposed penalties of $50,000.00. The inspection case was opened on 1996-09-05.

Federal investigators determined that one or more violations at this facility were committed willfully — meaning the employer either knowingly failed to comply with OSHA standards or acted with plain indifference to employee safety. Willful violations carry the highest penalty multipliers under the OSH Act.

State Context: Within TN, this facility's penalty places it at the 100th percentile among 40,481 inspected facilities. The statewide average penalty is $1,620.08.

Citation Analysis: The inspection produced 12 citations spanning 4 distinct OSHA regulatory standards. The citation breakdown includes: 6 serious — A workplace hazard that could cause death or serious physical harm exists, and the employer knew or should have known about the condition. 5 willful — The employer intentionally and knowingly committed the violation, demonstrating either an intentional disregard for the requirements of the OSH Act or plain indifference to employee safety and health. 1 other-than-serious — The violation has a direct relationship to job safety and health but is unlikely to cause death or serious physical harm.

Enforcement Timeline: Citations were issued beginning February 14, 1997 with the latest abatement deadline set for February 18, 1997. Of the 12 total citations, 12 (100%) have been marked as abated in DOL records, indicating substantial compliance with corrective action requirements.

Penalty Assessment: The cumulative penalty of $50,000.00 reflects OSHA's gravity-based penalty calculation methodology, which considers the severity of potential injury, the probability of occurrence, the employer's size, good faith, and violation history. The per-citation average of $4,166.67 falls within the standard penalty range.

The enforcement record for Controlled Demolition, Inc. reveals a high-gravity compliance failure characterized by a blatant disregard for specialized structural demolition standards. The presence of multiple Willful (W) violations, which carry the highest level of legal culpability under the OSH Act, indicates that management either acted with intentional disregard for worker safety or demonstrated plain indifference to statutory requirements. Specifically, the citations under 1926.900 and 1926.904 standards suggest a systemic breakdown in the handling of explosives and the required structural surveys prior to beginning demolition activities. For workers, these failures represented an existential threat; the lack of proper engineering surveys and explosive material controls in a high-hazard demolition environment creates a high probability of premature structural collapse or unintended detonations. The $50,000 penalty, while appearing modest by modern standards, was significantly elevated for the mid-1990s, reflecting the severity of the Willful designations and the maximum gravity rating of 10 assigned to nearly every citation. The concentration of violations within the 1926 Subpart T (Demolition) and Subpart U (Blasting and the Use of Explosives) underscores a failure in technical oversight rather than an isolated mechanical lapse. This pattern points to a fundamental absence of a qualified person’s supervision, suggesting that the facility’s safety culture prioritized operational speed over the rigorous, multi-step preparatory requirements essential for high-risk demolition projects.