Welders in a shop in Augusta, Georgia, were welding a plate onto the outside of a non-pressurized waste water collection tank in preparation for installing a hand rail. The atmosphere was tested surrounding the tank, but the inside was not. The welders didn't know what the gas buildup was, but the air in the tank was combustible. One of the victims in the explosion that occurred at the DSM Resins plant in September, 2017, was working inside a tank when the explosion happened.
This article by Elizabeth Floyd Mair of the Altamont Enterprise is a rare summary of a court case involving an employer challenge of an OSHA citation related to the gruesome death of a day laborer who was dragged into a wood-chipper on May 4, 2016. The employer, Tony Watson, owner of Countryside Tree Care, is contesting citations totaling $141,811 related to the death of Justus Booze, a 23-year old day laborer halfway through his first day on the job.
OSHA and Marshall Pottery, Inc. in Marshall, Texas have reached a settlement agreement including a penalty of $545,160, after the death of an assistant plant manager.
On April 16, 2017, investigators determined that the manager was servicing a kiln and became trapped inside when it activated.
A traffic accident in Brooklyn, New York last week took the life of a young worker and forever changed that of the driver who killed him.
News sources reported that 14-year-old Edwin Ajacalon, who was making restaurant deliveries on his bicycle, was struck by a car and killed on Saturday evening.
One person was killed and approximately three dozen injured in an explosion and fire last week at a cosmetics factory in New York state. Seven of the injured were firefighters who were inside the facility, responding to a first blast, when a second explosion occurred.
Hundreds of people gathered in Farmington, West Virginia on Sunday to commemorate a 49-year-old mining tragedy that killed 78 miners. The solemn ceremony held at Flat Run Memorial honored victims of the November 20, 1968 Farmington mine disaster in the Consol No. 9 coal mine north of Farmington and Mannington.
There were 99 miners at work that day when an explosion rocked the mine. The blast was strong enough to be felt in Fairmont, almost 12 miles away. Fires caused by the blast burned for over a week.
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.
Harsh criticism from NTSB after fatal train derailment
November 15, 2017
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has determined that the April 3, 2016, derailment of Amtrak train 89 near Chester, Pennsylvania was caused by deficient safety management across many levels of Amtrak and the resultant lack of a clear, consistent and accepted vision for safety. A backhoe operator and a track supervisor were killed, and 39 people were injured when Amtrak train 89, traveling on the Northeast Corridor from Philadelphia to Washington on track 3, struck a backhoe at about 7:50 a.m.
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.
Fall prevention and protection is a primary focus of construction industry safety programs. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, falls are the number one cause of construction-worker fatalities, accounting for one-third of on-the-job injury deaths in the industry.