Cal/OSHA has cited a Riverside, California construction company $66,000 for serious workplace safety violations that resulted in the death of a worker when a 17-foot-deep trench he was in collapsed. Cal/OSHA determined that Empire Equipment Services, Inc. did not properly classify the soil and failed to correctly slope the excavation.

The Norman County Sheriff’s Office has released more details of a farm accident last month that fatally injured a 28-year-old mother. Katherine Brommenschenkel Vilmo, of Ada, was feeding cattle Friday, Nov. 16, on her family’s farm in Hendrum along Minnesota Highway 200. It was about 9 a.m. when a large hay bale pinned Vilmo against a cattle feeder, according to a sheriff’s office report.

A young Google software engineer died at his desk Friday night in the company’s New York headquarters. News sources say 22-year-old Scott Krulcik was found unconscious at his work terminal at approximately 9 p.m. by a janitor. Emergency responders performed CPR but were unable to revive Krulcik. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Michigan’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) posted the preliminary details of the incident: “A two person crew was getting set to replace an electrical pole and while removing the new pole from their truck, contacted the overhead 7200-volt electrical line with the truck boom causing a 51-year-old journeyman line worker at the back of the truck to be electrocuted.”

Yallourn operator EnergyAustralia has released a second statement about an internal investigation into the cause of an explosion which killed a power station worker employed at the station for more than three decades.

Two years after a natural gas-fueled explosion rocked downtown Canton, Illinois, killing one person and injuring 11 others, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has concluded its investigation into the incident.

A blistering report on small farm safety, Samsung Electronics apologizes for work-related illnesses and a dire warning about the effects of climate change on human health. These were among the top occupational safety and health stories featured on ISHN.com this week.

The death of a civilian employee at an Army Reserve facility in California has resulted in OSHA issuing safety violations to the U.S. Army Reserve 63 Regional Support Command. The incident at a Sacramento facility occurred when the automated lifting mechanism of a utility vehicle cargo box failed and pinned the worker between the bed and the vehicle frame, causing him fatal injuries.

A California construction company that dismantled a trench box while an employee was still working inside, causing him to be fatally crushed, has been cited by Cal/OSHA for safety violations. The agency determined that general contractor Bay Construction Co. committed willful-serious safety violations by unsafely removing a linear support rail that fell and killed the worker.

A construction worker was killed at a Brooklyn, New York worksite on the day before Thanksgiving by a piece of sheet metal that fell from an unapproved forklift. News sources say 44-year-old Over Paredes of Newark, New Jersey was working on the roof of a six-story condo development when a manual forklift that was hoisting part of a metal-framed wall topped onto its side, releasing the metal.