An OSHA investigation into a worker’s partial thumb amputation has resulted in safety citations and thousands of dollars in proposed fines against his employer. The injury occurred when the employee was clearing a jam on a bag sealing machine.
Liqui-Box Corp., an Ashland, Ohio plastic bag manufacturer, faces penalties totaling $155,208 for failing to:
- adequately train employees on lockout/tagout procedures, and
- complete required annual audits of the company’s safety processes
- suffered a partial amputation of his thumb.
Kim Nelson, OSHA Area Office Director in Toledo, said hundreds of workers are injured every year in manufacturing facilities because employers fail to follow machine safety procedures.
Liqui-Box Corp. has been placed in OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP), which concentrates agency resources on inspecting employers who have demonstrated indifference to their OSH Act obligations by committing willful, repeated, or failure-to-abate violations.
