By Joseph S. Pete

The Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration found five serious safety violations at the ArcelorMittal Indiana Harbor steel mill in East Chicago after the death of a steelworker there in a Taylor Dunn buggy accident in December.

The state fined ArcelorMittal $21,000 after an investigation into the death of Alfred Cadena, a 61-year-old East Chicago resident.

Union officials said Cadena, a veteran line operator at the mill, died on Dec. 11 after driving the golf cart-like buggy into a stationary scrap trailer while trying to pull a piece of scrap steel to it.

IOSHA investigators found that the cart's operators did not receive the required training, that employees used the Taylor Dunn cart without proper certification or doing daily inspections, that the buggy's brakes weren't functioning correctly and that the cart hadn't been inspected to ensure it was safe to operate in 11 days.

State law mandates that industrial trucks must be inspected daily before being placed in service.

IOSHA, a division of the Indiana Department of Labor, ordered ArcelorMittal to fix the safety issues at the mill.

Source: www.nwi.com