workplace fatalities
cmonforton | April 29, 2016If only The Pump Handle had a crew of correspondents to report from the many Worker Memorial Day events held this past week. If you attended a Worker Memorial Day event, I’m calling on you to share some highlights from it in the comment section below.
I spent time in Houston, TX where Mayor Sylvester Turner and the City Council issued a proclamation to remember workers who were killed, injured, or made ill because of their jobs. Our event featured remarks by Mr. Joseph Reyna, whose son Steven Reyna died in November 2015 while working for Atlantic Coffee Solutions, four workers from La Espiga…
cmonforton | September 17, 2015Terry Leon Lakey, 51, suffered fatal traumatic injuries on Wednesday, September 16, 2015 while working at Terex Services in Waco, TX. KCEN reports:
*The incident occurred at 5:40 am when “the victim was crushed by a piece of hydraulic equipment.”
The CSB affiliate in Waco was more specific, reporting:
*Mr. Lakey “was crushed by the hydraulic aerial lift that he was servicing.”
The Waco Tribune indicates:
*"Terex officials did not answer the phone Wednesday and did not return phone messages."
Terex is multinational firm that manufacturers and services industrial machinery and equipment. Its…
cmonforton | August 26, 2015It was paltry. It was a pittance. It was pathetic. That’s what I thought of OSHA’s proposed $99,000 penalty to DuPont for safety violations related to the November 2014 death of four of its employees. OSHA dinged the company for one repeat and nine serious violations. Wade Baker, 60, Gibby Tisnado, 48, Robert Tisnado, 39, and Crystal Wise, 53 were asphyxiated by methyl mercaptan because of gross failures in DuPont’s systems to manage highly hazardous chemicals.
The penalty amount is so insignificant it wouldn’t even appear on a DuPont financial statement. $99,000 is less than 0.0003% of…
cmonforton | January 5, 2015Elbert C. Woods’ work-related death could have been prevented. That’s how I see the findings of Federal OSHA in the agency’s citations against his employer, Cleveland Track Material. The 45-year-old was working in August 2014 at the company’s Cleveland plant when he was pulled into machinery. I wrote about the incident shortly after it was reported by local press.
Inspectors with OSHA conducted an inspection at Cleveland Track following Woods’ death. The agency recently issued citations to the firm for six serious violations and proposed a $49,000 penalty. The violations all involved gross…
cmonforton | December 24, 2014Chandler Warren’s work-related death could have been prevented. That’s how I see the findings of Tennessee OSHA in the agency’s citations against his employer Federal Express. The 19-year-old was working in July 2014 on the night shift at the company’s World Hub in Memphis, TN. News reports indicated that the equipment used to load containers onto an aircraft crashed down on him.
Inspectors with Tennessee OSHA conducted an inspection at FedEx's Memphis World Hub following Warren’s death. The agency recently issued citations to the firm including for one serious violation with a proposed $4,…
cmonforton | October 16, 2014John Dunnivant, 57, suffered fatal traumatic injuries on Tuesday, October 7, while working at a Kia Motors manufacturing plant. The facility is located in West Point, Georgia, off of I-85 near the Alabama-state line. WTVM provides some initial information on the worker's death:
Police and fire were called to the plant at 11:10 am local time.
Dunnivant worked in maintenance and was crushed by a stamping machine.
Kia management cancelled the remaining workshifts the day of Dunnivant’s death, but production began again the next day.
Ben Wright of the Ledger-Enquirer reports:
Dunnivant was found…
cmonforton | October 6, 2014When Sherman Holmes, 55, was killed on-the-job by a felled tree, his employer’s profit on the lumber was more than enough to pay the penalty for the three safety violations identified by Michigan OSHA. That penalty was only $1,525.*
WyoFile’s Dustin Bleizeffer reported last week on one family’s efforts to change how penalties are assessed for safety violations associated with work-related fatal injury. Mary Jane Collins of Sheridan, Wyoming wants tougher consequences for companies that disregard safety standards. Her grandson, Brett Samuel Collins, 20, was killed on-the-job in August 2012…
lborkowski | December 28, 2011While we're on vacation, we're re-posting content from earlier in the year. This post was originally published on March 9, 2011.
By Celeste Monforton
"Death takes no holidays in industry and commerce," is how Labor Secretary Willard Wirtz described the toll of on-the-job death and disability for U.S. workers. The Secretary's remarks in 1968 were part of congressional hearings on legislation that ultimately established the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). He suggested that because most work-related fatalities and injuries happen one or two at a time, day in and day out…
cmonforton | December 8, 2011The next time you hear someone claim that worker safety regulations and OSHA hurt job growth and hinder small businesses, remind them about Haasbach, LLC. On July 28, 2010, two workers (Wyatt Whitebread, 14, and Alex Pacas, 19) were killed at a grain handling facility owned by Haasbach, when the young workers were engulfed in corn. The boys, along with several others, were hired to do dangerous work----breaking up corn in a million bushel grain bin----and had not been given the training or equipment to do it safely. Haasbach's owners failed to ensure that basic safety procedures were…