OSHA is proposing nearly two million dollars in fines against a Wisconsin corn milling facility, after five employees were killed in 12 others injured in a grain dust explosion. Among those injured in the May 31, 2017 accident at Didion Milling, Inc.: a 21-year-old employee who suffered a double leg amputation after being crushed by a railcar. OSHA found that the explosion likely resulted from Didion’s failures to correct the leakage and accumulation of highly combustible grain dust throughout the facility and to properly maintain equipment to control ignition sources.
Private industry employers reported nearly 48,500 fewer nonfatal injury and illness cases in 2016 compared to a year earlier, according to estimates released yesterday from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII).
There were approximately 2.9 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses reported by private industry employers in 2016, which occurred at a rate of 2.9 cases per 100 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers.
Rockford police officer killed after traffic stop
ROCKFORD, Ill. — A Rockford police officer was killed in the line of duty, and a man he pulled over was also killed, after the two were involved in a “scuffle” early Sunday, according to officials. Rockford Chief of Police Dan O’Shea said 30-year-old Officer Jamie Cox, who had been on the force for about a year, pulled over 49-year-old Eddie Patterson as he drove a small pickup truck near the northwest suburb around 1 a.m. Sunday.
Steven Frosch’s future earnings potential was a factor
November 6, 2017
The family of a sanitation worker who was accidentally run over by a colleague driving a street sweeper was awarded $41.5 million by a jury of six in Queens, New York last week.
The incident occurred while 43-year-old Steven Frosch was making adjustments to his own street sweeper in a Department of Sanitation garage.
On the heels of an incident in which a worker was injected with a flammable propellant gas, OSHA has reached agreements with three Massachusetts packaging companies to correct workplace hazards and enhance safety.
OSHA found that Dudley- based Shield Packaging Co. Inc. – which packages aerosol containers – failed to implement required procedures to lock out the machine's power sources or train the employee on how to recognize and avoid the hazard.
A 51-year-old worker in Georgia died Monday night after getting caught in a piece of machinery, according to news sources.
Shaw Industries employee Jesus Pimentel was caught between a moving part of a machine and a stationary steel I-beam, said Whitfield County Coroner Greg Bates.
A 22-year-old worker died last week in Streamwood, Illinois after becoming trapped in a manhole.
Authorities say Brett Morrow was part of a construction crew working to clean out and install lining in a sanitary sewer system. He was about 30 feet into a two foot-wide pipe when he became trapped. According to news sources, firefighters crawled down through the pipe, but had trouble reaching Morrow because of a large quantity of hardened lining material that was blocking the pipe.
November 2017 sees the launch of the second annual Incident Management Month by enterprise SharePoint EHS software providers Pro-Sapien. The campaign aims to highlight the importance of improving workplace safety by promoting a culture of thorough incident management and reporting.
OSHA has cited a Pittsburgh masonry contractor for exposing workers to serious dangers including fall and electrical hazards after an employee was fatally electrocuted in April.
The 21-year-old laborer was doing restoration work at a Pittsburgh residence when he was electrocuted.
A subsequent investigation of the man’s employer, Ski Masonry LLC, resulted in two willful and five serious citations for violations against the company.
Six construction workers were injured last week – four seriously – at a Brooklyn, New York worksite. According to news sources, the injuries occurred when a two-story brick building that was under construction collapsed after a load of cinder blocks was placed on its roof.
