To a spokesman for the family of Ronald Silver II, the state’s response after his on-the-job death seemed like “a slap on the wrist.”

Baltimore government was charged last Friday with a single safety violation – with no financial penalty – seven months after Maryland Occupational Safety & Health (MOSH) began an investigation into the sanitation worker’s death following a shift he worked in crushing August heat.

The outcome was essentially preordained by Maryland’s failure to enact laws and policies to protect people working in hazardous environments, including a workplace heat standard similar to the kind that’s been in place in California, Oregon, Minnesota and other states for years.

If the heat standard Maryland finally enacted last September had been in effect on August 2 when Silver died, MOSH would have had grounds to charge Baltimore City and the Department of Public Works (DPW) with multiple violations.

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