Hassell Construction fined $424K for egregious safety violations
July 23, 2015
One minute, a man was working in the 8-foot trench below ground. The next, he was being buried in it. His co-workers came to his rescue, digging the worker out with their bare hands. Moments after they pulled the injured man to safety, the unprotected trench collapsed again. His injuries were serious and led to his hospitalization.
A Birmingham, Alabama social services company was well aware that its employees were being injured by violent clients for several years, yet took no action to protect its workers, according to OSHA, which issued Gateway one general duty clause citation for failing to protect employees from the hazards of physical assault while providing care for adolescent children and teenagers known to exhibit violent behavior tendencies.
For many employees, a safety manager’s harping about rules and procedures may go in one ear and out the other. As a safety consultant for Becker Iron and Metal, an Illinois metal scrap company, Lisa Dunn knew that in order to improve safety she would need to find a way to involve employees in developing a more collaborative safety culture.
Lauren Manufacturing ignored machine safety hazards, faces $105K in fines
July 17, 2015
A hydraulic press crushed a 62-year-old machine operator's left hand at a seal and gasket manufacturer, resulting in multiple broken bones. The injured worker, a 15-year employee, has been unable to return to work and has endured three surgeries as a result.
An open-flame heater on the floor of a rig likely sparked the fire that killed three natural gas drillers and seriously injured two others in a December 2014 drilling rig fire in Coalgate, OK, OSHA has concluded after an investigation.
Amnesty International recently aired the latest of several reports on alarming levels of labor abuse and injury linked to Qatar’s World Cup development, as reported in the magazine The Nation.
Work-related injury and death rates higher than in other industries
July 14, 2015
Workers involved in nearly every step of the modern food industry are at increased risk of occupational illness/injury and death, compared to other industries, reports a study in the July Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).
Although a worker in Yorkshire, England still suffers physically and mentally from a severe chemical burn at an oil refinery, co-workers were able to get him quickly to an emergency shower, and after that, to a hospital for treatment.
Eight people have died in construction-related accidents in 2015 thus far, according to the city’s Buildings Department, as many as in all of 2014; the year before, three died. Not since 2008, during the height of the last building boom, has the number of construction accidents been so high, when a rash of episodes, including two falling cranes, claimed 19 lives, according to an article in The New York Times.
Although hardhats are a fixture in construction work and are intended to keep construction workers safe, they do not always prevent accidents that lead to traumatic brain injury (TBI) on construction sites, according to the Brain Injury Society.