One of the deadliest industrial disasters in the history of the country – the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire - occurred in New York City on this day in 1911. The fire claimed the lives off 146 garment workers – many of whom jumped to their deaths from the 7th, 8th and 9th floors of the building in order to avoid the smoke and flames sweeping through their workplace.
Early in 2019, OSHA cited a pet food company in Florida for failing to provide protective gear for workers handling corrosive chemicals, a Pennsylvania hair salon for exposing workers to hazardous materials, an Ohio musical instrument factory for exposing workers to toxic copper dust, and a Texas indoor gun range for exposing workers to unsafe levels of lead.
A 54-year-old South Lyon man died after he fell into a tank of sulfuric acid. The incident occurred around noon at the Michigan Seamless Tube and Pipe facility. The cause of the man's fall remains unknown.
After being pulled from the tank by a co-worker, the man was put into a shower and then rushed to The University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor where he died Saturday night. The 160-degree acid is used to strengthen the piping manufactured at the plant.
Dennis Mason's body was found, face down, between his truck and a crude oil tank at a well site near Kingfisher, Okla. Investigators immediately suspected he was killed by toxic vapors from the oil.
But they weren't able to prove it, because state medical examiners didn't test Mason's blood for petroleum chemicals before declaring his death natural, the result of heart failure.
OSHA inspectors had quickly sent word to the medical examiners that they suspected his death was related to his job hauling oil for Sunoco Logistics Partners.
The employers of a worker killed on a light rail tunnel project in San Francisco failed to identify potential hazards and to train workers on safety procedures, according to Cal/OSHA, which has issued $65,300 in penalties in the fatality.
The incident occurred last August, while employees were using heavy equipment and tools to work in and around the tunnel.
Flooding in a tank that held clams caused a fishing vessel to capsize and sink off the coast of Massachusetts, according to an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
Two crew members were trapped on board and died when the uninspected fishing vessel Misty Blue sank on December 4, 2017.
One worker noticed a large crack in the soft dirt of an unprotected wall of a utility trench. He and the other worker in the trench at that time were told to use caution…but continue working.
The subsequent collapse of that unprotected wall killed a man and earned his employer nearly a quarter of a million dollars in fines from Cal/OSHA.
Investigators for the state agency said Livermore-based contractor Platinum Pipeline, Inc. committed willful-serious safety violations by instructing employees to continue grading the bottom of the trench without providing any protection, even after identifying the soil as unstable.
Until now, nonfatal injuries and deaths in the motor vehicle towing industry have been largely overlooked
February 21, 2019
The motor vehicle towing industry has a higher rate of work-related injury and death compared to other industries, according to NIOSH research presented at the National Occupational Injury Research Symposium in Morgantown, West Virginia. Yet studies historically have focused on the safety of other first responders, including law enforcement officers, fire fighters, and emergency medical services workers.
A 54-year-old worker died after he fell into a vat of sulfuric acid at a South Lyon-based steel manufacturing firm (Michigan) in what is being described as a "serious industrial accident."
The man was fully submerged in the 10 percent to 12 percent sulfuric acid solution as his Michigan Seamless Tube co-workers worked desperately to pull him from the industrial container, burning themselves from the at least 160-degree chemical solution, Fire Chief Robert Vogel said.
The clear skies offered good visibility and a lookout was posted on the morning of November 30, 2018, but those factors didn’t prevent a CSX Transportation freight train from striking and killing a track welder. The National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) preliminary report on the incident offers few clues as to why the accident occurred. According to the report, the accident in Estill, South Carolina occurred as the train – traveling at about 50 miles an hour – approached a location where a welder was at work on the track.
