A company owner in Roslindale, Massachusetts was sentenced this week to two years in the House of Corrections after being found guilty of two counts of manslaughter for the deaths of two employees. Kevin Otto, owner of Atlantic Drain Services, will have three years’ probation following his sentence, and he can never again employ anyone in a job that involves excavation.
The family of a Kentucky man killed in a workplace incident has filed a lawsuit against his employer, GE Appliances, and other parties. Steve Herring, who’d worked for the company for more than two decades, died in February after being pinned by machinery while working on a refrigerator-building assembly line. News sources are reporting that the state OSHA’s investigation into the fatality found that it could have been caused by an inadvertent activation of an improperly positioned gate interlock control.
Inadequate planning and communication were what led to the 2016 gas pipeline explosion and fire in Alabama that killed two workers and injured four others, according to an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The October 31 blast near Helena occurred when a contractor who was excavating damaged the Colonial Pipeline Company’s (Colonial) 36-inch diameter refined liquid petroleum transmission pipeline
Dollar Tree gets hit with a new set of the same old violations, Exxon loses a legal bid to keep refinery blast info from the CSB and nominations open for National Safety Council awards for safety professionals. These were among the top stories featured on ISHN.com this week.
An employee of a tree trimming company died in a workplace accident Tuesday morning in Wakefield, Massachusetts.
The 34-year-old man, whose name has not yet been released, suffered traumatic injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, according a statement issued by Wakefield Police Chief Steven Skory, Wakefield Fire Chief Michael Sullivan, and Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan.
OSHA has cited Dana Railcare – based in Wilmington, Delaware – for confined space hazards after an employee fatality in Pittston, Pennsylvania. The railcar service provider faces $551,226 in proposed penalties. An employee was asphyxiated in May 2019, while servicing a rail car containing crude oil sludge. OSHA cited the company for four willful and three serious violations for failing to protect employees from the hazards of entering permit-required confined spaces, and inadequate respiratory protection procedures.
OSHA inspections increase, the crew of a fishing vessel escapes a sinking ship and two young UPS workers lose their lives in a California workplace incident. These were among the occupational safety and health stories featured on ISHN.com this week.
Workplace violence was a common theme in some of the workplace incidents that killed or injured employees in the U.S. There were also incidents involving machinery, a fall and a struck-by fatality. Here are some of the occupational safety news stories of the week:
OSHA has cited Diaz Professional Construction LLC for exposing employees to falls at a Montgomery, Alabama, residential worksite. The framing contractor faces $31,879 in penalties.
In late 2019, a plant electrician with 15 years of mining experience was electrocuted when he contacted an energized connection of a 4,160 VAC electrical circuit. Two more mining fatalities by electrocution have occurred since. The electrocution deaths prompted the MSHA to issue a safety alert.
