A workplace safety investigation into a 65-year-old worker’s fatal crushing injuries at TimkenSteel in Canton found the company failed to install guards or provide proper hand tools to prevent workers from entanglement hazards while operating a bar straightener machine.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined that the worker was operating the machine on Dec. 27, 2021, at the steel mill’s Gambrinus facility, when he was caught on a piece of steel bar stock rotating at a high speed, resulting in fatal injuries. Inspectors also found the company provided employees with hooks to manipulate the spinning steel bar stock that were not long enough and required the operator’s hands to be present in the machine’s danger zone while guiding the steel bar stock into the straightener.