OSHA calls for fine in death

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.news-leader.com/article/20100416/BUSINESS05/4160314/OSHA-calls-for-fine-in-death

Man died in October accident at Springfield facility.

News-Leader staff • April 16, 2010

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is recommending Buckhorn Inc. be fined $116,000 for violations that lead to the death of employee Tobby Hall last year in Springfield.

Hall, 31-year-old father and stepfather of four, died Oct. 7 while working at the Buckhorn LLC plant, 2727 N. Partnership Blvd. He was inside a plastic injection molding machine when a co-worker who thought Hall had gone to get a tool started the machine, crushing Hall.

"There is no excuse for this accident. This worker should not have been allowed to work in the machine without energy sources being locked out," said Charles Adkins, OSHA's regional administrator in Kansas City, in a news release.

OSHA's investigation of the company found one willful and 15 serious violations of the OSH Act. The willful violation stems from the company's failure to ensure the plastic injection molding machine was isolated from energy sources or turned off and locked out when employees were performing maintenance activities inside the machine danger zone.

FULL story at link.

[Webster Green]

1. No excuse at all.

They should have had a padlock on the main electrical feed to the machine, had it red-tagged as being worked on, and the only key to the padlock in the pocket of the guy doing the work inside the machine. Those measures would no doubt have prevented this.

That's a damn cheap price they put on the poor guy's life. They should get fined much more for a fatal accident due to negligence.