Denver International Airport may have failed to follow its own procedures for ensuring worker safety when a contractor was killed by a DIA runway sweeper in August, according to a Denver Post review of airport and police reports.
The DIA policy provided to The Post calls for workers who remove rubber buildup on runways to be supervised by airport-maintenance personnel and for the work to be complete before large airport brooms are brought in to sweep the runway.
In this case, accident reports and radio transmissions indicate that the contract employee who was killed was still doing last-minute tasks in the work zone when airport brooms were operating on the runway.
DIA officials declined to comment on whether proper procedures were followed, saying the airport has been served with legal papers that could lead to lawsuits.
DIA maintenance supervisors call in the brooms to further clean runways after contractors have blasted and vacuumed up rubber buildup from the concrete surface.
“When all work has been completed, the airport employees and contract employees are escorted off of the runway by an operations manager or assistant manager,” DIA said in a written response to questions.
$5,000 OSHA fine
But in the early-morning hours of Aug. 6, contract employee Robert Genzler, 46, was hit by a sweeper on runway 16 Left/34 Right. His skull was crushed and shoulder blade and ribs were fractured, according to a Denver medical examiner’s autopsy report.
Genzler and his partner, James Windisch, worked for Rampart Hydro Services, a contractor based in Coraopolis, Pa., that removes rubber deposited on runways by the tires of arriving aircraft.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed a $5,000 fine against the company because Genzler was not wearing a reflective vest and there were no “danger tags” in the work area. The company is challenging the fine, claiming DIA workers did not tell its employees that the sweepers were coming.
As a government entity, DIA cannot be fined by OSHA.
Rubber needs to be periodically removed because it gets slick when wet and can impair the braking action of planes.
After working on rubber removal through the night, the contractors had parked their trucks on the shoulder of the runway.
Genzler walked to the center of the concrete expanse to make some last-minute measurements and possibly repair a joint seal, according to investigative reports. At 5:12 a.m., he was killed.
Denver police and DIA maintenance-department reports say the operator of the lead broom, Steve Padilla, never saw Genzler, as Padilla made a U-turn to start his departure from the runway after sweeping the surface.
DIA two-way radio transmissions obtained through an open-records request indicate the operator of a second airport sweeper, following just behind Padilla, frantically tried to warn the lead sweeper seconds before Genzler was hit.
“Stop! Stop! Stop! You hit the guy,” broom operator Tony Vasquez shouted at Padilla over the radio.
“The employees working on the runway had no indication that a Rampart employee was going to walk out onto the runway, for whatever reason,” the maintenance department report said. “Mr. Padilla was caught off-guard and did not expect anyone to be on the runway,” the report added.
DIA uses own sweepers
Airports typically hire outside firms with specialized trucks that blast accumulated rubber from runways with ultra high-pressure — up to 36,000 pounds per square inch — water sprays.
Another contractor truck vacuums up the loosened debris and water.
DIA’s policy is to use its own vehicles, affixed with 22-foot-wide runway brooms, to sweep the concrete surface after the contracted rubber-removal work.
At 5:04, eight minutes before Genzler was hit, Padilla, in the lead broom, called DIA maintenance worker Charles Cabral on the radio and said, “Hey, Chuck, I believe that was our final pass. Did you want us to hit it again?”
“Uh, no, that looks all right,” Cabral responded. “I’m just gonna finish sealing this, and then, ah, we’ll get out of here.”
The Denver police investigative report said: “All of the vehicles involved in the operation were stopped. They were preparing to end their shift and leave the runway. It was dark outside. Charles Cabral says that Mr. Genzler returned to his truck to get a measuring tape.”
“Mr. Cabral was alone and did not see what happened next,” the report added. “Mr. Windisch did not see the accident. Mr. Windisch assumes that Mr. Genzler was on the runway to take measurements.”
The DIA maintenance-department investigation said Genzler walked 300 feet onto the runway from his parked truck.
Fifteen seconds after Genzler was run over by the lead broom, Cabral was on the radio, calling for emergency assistance, according to the timed audio tapes.
Law limits suit liability
Airport officials in Los Angeles and Chicago say they do not use their own equipment as backup sweepers during rubber removal.
Los Angeles World Airports, which runs Los Angeles International and three smaller airports in the region, hired Rampart Hydro last year to handle the entire rubber-blasting and vacuuming operation, said Dave Waldner, LAWA’s assistant director of construction and maintenance.
“The contract award says they are to clean the runway and leave it in a condition ready for aircraft operations,” Waldner said.
Chicago’s O’Hare International and Midway International airports also do not use their own equipment for sweeping after rubber removal, said Gregg Cunningham, a city aviation-department spokesman.
Colorado’s Governmental Immunity Act limits what DIA might have to pay on a lawsuit’s liability claim to $150,000, said Marc Bendinelli, attorney for Genzler’s family. He will argue that DIA was negligent in the accident.
To the charge that Genzler endangered himself by walking on the runway without a reflective vest, Bendinelli said: “I don’t care if he was dressed in camouflage. They (sweepers) shouldn’t have been out there. This is a needless death as a result of sloppy and lazy implementation of safety procedures.”
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
