OSHA-mandated lockout-tagout (LOTO) practices began in 1989 with the introduction of regulation CFR1910.147. The agency estimated hundreds of fatalities every year could be prevented’
OSHA was right. Fatalities due to LOTO (or lack thereof) fell dramatically, but then something else happened—the fatality statistics leveled off and plateaued. And not just the fatalities, but amputations and severe fines for companies not complying with this multi-decade old law.