David Alomia, 37

A few days ago, a man died. His work partner survived with critical injuries. The man who died was a painter, working for a contractor which was hired by the City of New York.

The two were wearing standard safety harnesses and since I’ve used them before, I can attest to their effectiveness. But the dog clip has to be disconnected for an aerial worker to move. Painters move quite a bit, especially on a bridge, disconnecting and hooking up further along as they progress. While these painters were moving, a wind gust struck them and they fell.

Whereas David Alomia was killed in a 100-foot fall, his partner, Fabio Santana, was hit by the wind and landed on a safety rail.

What happens when these things occur is that there’s an investigation, usually by OSHA, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It’s not much despite its big name; underfunded and historically understaffed, it is charged with spot inspections, most often due to worker’s complaints. Most complaints are never even followed up on. Only high profile cases, usually after someone has been seriously injured or killed, are truly investigated. OSHA has a lot of power, though, and can impose fines or even force a business to close until the workplace is reinspected and deemed safe, corrections having been made.

In the 1980s and ’90s, it was estimated that most businesses could go from opening through a 70-year run without ever being inspected by OSHA.

Which makes the administration about as useful as employing model rockets for space exploration.

Bridges and wind don’t mix well. High winds can push empty tractor-trailer rigs clean off a bridge. Wind restrictions prohibit mobile homes and empty semi-trailers from crossing.

At the time of the accident, according to this article, the National Weather Service claimed that winds did not exceed 20 m.p.h., but anyone who has ever been working on a bridge can tell you that crosswinds can exceed the speeds recorded by remote weather stations which use anemometers. And being suspended under a bridge is a nasty place to work; it’s like being in a wind tunnel even when no wind is felt above the deck.

However favorable or hostile the weather was, OSHA will never have the power to restore life, and the final result of the investigation will probably cite worker’s error. Because that’s how this world is.

What you never see in the article or on-site news reports are the damaged lives left behind when the worker dies.

David had a fiancee, you see. His first wife had left him for someone else, and he was awarded custody of their child.

And Nicole, his fiancee, was deeply wounded by not one but two abusive men. She has children as well. She turned on a local TV station. There, under a sheet, lay the one man who had truly loved her, traveled with her, made her happy.

Only when there’s been a homicide will the media take an interest in those the victim is survived by. It is an obscenity.

Since David and Nicole had not yet married, no one will find her “interesting”. There will be no phone calls, no cameras.

But her friends, they know what happened. The man who took Nicole and her children to Disneyland a few months ago is gone. They feel terrible for her. But what can even a friend say when someone they love has just lost the love of their life so suddenly and in such a shocking way?

Because words, no matter how well meant, can cause even more pain. But they try. They tell her that she is not alone. That she will live on. And certainly, Nicole knows that her children will have their own grief, and she has to be strong for them.

I wonder how I would handle such a tragedy. At least I understand that she has a hard past, and from it has gained strength. Otherwise, I’d be much more worried for her. In our pasts, you and I, there’s pain. Lots of it. And it is a part of life, being in pain, knowing it, not being able to get around it, evade or avoid it, but ultimately having to face it. Yet it is difficult to face. Sometimes we hurt so much that we believe the pain will surely kill us.

But Nicole needs help facing this pain, and while it is well that she has friends who love her by her side, a higher power is also needed.

And so, I ask you now, please send up a prayer for Nicole and her children.

I have faith that it will help. I have faith in God. And I have faith in you.