A four-and-a-half month investigation by the Indiana Occupational Health and Safety Administration (IOSHA) found Notre Dame guilty of six violations stemming from the October death of junior Declan Sullivan, the Indiana Department of Labor announced Tuesday.
Sullivan died Oct. 27 after the scissor-lift from which he was filming football practice fell. He was a student videographer for the football team.
The citations resulted in fines totaling $77,500, according to the IOSHA safety report. The six violations include one "knowing" violation with a $55,000 fine and five "serious" violations with fines summing $22,500.
"We found that Notre Dame did not establish and maintain conditions of work that were reasonably safe for its employees, that were free from recognized hazards that caused or were likely to cause serious injury," Indiana Department of Labor commissioner Lori Torres said in a press conference Tuesday morning. "In addition, by directing an untrained, student videographer to use the scissor lift during a period of time when the National Weather Service had issued an active wind advisory … the University knowingly exposed its employees to unsafe conditions."
IOSHA's safety report said Notre Dame did not properly train Sullivan to use the scissor lift. The scissor lift had not been inspected annually, monthly or weekly for more than a year, and it had not been serviced as its preventive maintenance schedule required. The scissor lift also had neither all of its warning labels nor its operator's manual.
IOSHA did not attempt to name specific individuals in the report, deputy commissioner Jeffry Carter said.
"When IOSHA does an investigation, we see an employer as one party, so we don't necessarily look at it from within the managing structure," he said. "We might interview and ascertain that certain people had a hand in that, but we see the employer as a whole, because we are charged with [making sure] the employer maintains a safe workplace overall. Our investigation doesn't look at individuals as much as it does the employer."
Torres said Notre Dame assisted in the investigation process.
"Notre Dame was cooperative in our investigation," she said. "They provided us access to every person, every document, every piece of investigation we requested.
"Notre Dame has taken action to ensure such an accident will never happen again, by eliminating the use of the scissor lifts for filming, and replacing them with remote control cameras positioned on a semi-permanent structure."
Notre Dame has 15 business days – until April 7 – to respond to the safety report either by accepting the findings and paying the fines, appealing or requesting an informal meeting to discuss disputes.
University spokesman Dennis Brown said Notre Dame would release a written statement in response this afternoon.
The investigation has also resulted in an educational initiative to help Indiana schools avoid similar accidents, Torres said.
"Our role as a regulatory agency … we got this and did this investigation and it became clear to us in many places … scissor lifts are huge," Torrres said. "Our role is to keep the employees safe in Indiana, so we are going to extend that … We also have a branch of education outreach, training. So we are going to get that group involved."
Torres said a letter has been sent to the NCAA as well as the Indiana High School Athletic Association detailing some of the lessons learned in this investigation.
