Two workers at one company working at two separate press brakes suffered amputations eight days apart last January – resulting in fines and membership in OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program for T & D Metal Products LLC of Watseka, IL.

OSHA cited T & D Metal Products LLC with four safety, including three willful, violations, after the injuries at the company's Watseka metal stamping facility.
"T & D Metal Products failed to ensure machine guarding and safety procedures were in place to protect employees, even after a worker was injured. This negligence contributed to a second worker being injured on the same type of equipment eight days later," said Tom Bielema, OSHA's area director in Peoria.

The willful violations include failing to lock out/tag out hazardous energy sources prior to performing maintenance operations and to have point-of-operation guarding on the press brakes on both Jan. 10 and Jan. 18.

One serious safety violation was cited for failing to use safety blocks when dies were being adjusted and repaired.

Proposed penalties for the citations total $214,830.

Prior to the January inspection, the company had been cited by OSHA for 47 violations since 1988.

OSHA has placed T & D Metal Products in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program, which mandates targeted follow-up inspections to ensure compliance with the law. Initiated in June 2010, the program focuses on recalcitrant employers that endanger workers by committing willful, repeat or failure-to-abate violations. T & D Metal Products LLC was placed in the program due to the company's previous OSHA violations and the egregious violations cited in the January incidents. A violation is deemed egregious when a company is cited for instance-by-instance violations of the same standard, such as failing to provide machine guarding protection.