Pittsburgh-area Contractor Gets OSHA Fall Sentence

The owner of a Pittsburgh-area construction firm will spend three years on probation, including six months' house arrest, for willingly violating federal workplace safety rules that contributed to a worker's death in August.

Forty-four-year-old Christopher Franc, of Valencia, had previously been fined $539,000 by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Franc had previously pleaded guilty to willfully failing to use safety equipment to protect employees of his C. A. Franc Construction company from falling off on steep roofs.

One of Franc's employees, 29-year-old Carl Beck, of Butler, died after falling 42 feet from a roof where he was working on Aug. 15.