Central Ready Mix LLC has been cited for 10 serious safety violations by OSHA after a 39-year-old plant operator was fatally engulfed in a fly-ash storage silo on Aug. 6 at the Middletown, Ohio gravel company.
The worker entered the cone-bottom silo in an attempt to break up clumps of fly ash that had clogged the bottom discharge. After attempts to dislodge clumps with a metal bar and air hose did not work, he climbed into the silo, without a harness and lanyard, and devoted several hours to breaking up the clumps before being engulfed.