A 21-year-old machine operator was killed at Ventra Belvidere LLC while reaching into a machine to align parts made for Chrysler vehicles. Following an investigation into the June 10, 2014 incident, OSHA cited the Belvidere, Illinois facility for one willful and four serious safety violations for exposing workers to dangerous machinery and other hazards.

"This tragic death was preventable if Ventra Belvidere ensured proper machine guarding," said Jacob Scott, OSHA's area director in Aurora. "Failure to protect employees from dangerous machinery often leads to catastrophic injury or death. These violations are among the most frequently cited by OSHA."

The investigation found that the sensing device to detect if someone was in the machine was improperly set, which allowed the device to cycle while the employee reached into the machine. OSHA issued a willful violation for failure to guard a sequencing machine properly.

OSHA cited Ventra Belvidere for four serious violations for failure to guard other machines properly, conduct periodic evaluations oflockout/tagout procedures and to train workers on the procedures.

OSHA proposed penalties of $93,400 for the company, which employs about 106 workers.