Ill. steel company pleads guilty in death of employee
Behr Iron & Steel Inc. of Rockford, Illinois pleaded guilty yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Iain D. Johnston to willfully violating OSHA regulations, resulting in the death of an employee at the company’s facility in South Beloit, Ill.
The high volume ferrous and nonferrous scrap processor admitted in a plea agreement that on March 10, 2014, the company failed to provide lockout/tagout protection and confined space protection as required under OSHA regulations for the company’s employees who were cleaning a shredder discharge pit. The company admitted that those violations caused the death of an employee who got caught in a moving, unguarded conveyor belt.