Feds assess large safety fine

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.al.com/business/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/business/120738692837480.xml&coll=3

Saturday, April 05, 2008
By JEFF AMY
Business Reporter

A construction company has been fined $31,500 by federal job safety officials because of problems with excavation safety rules.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Mobile office fined RaCon Inc., based in Tuscaloosa, over problems at the company's work site at U.S. 90 and McDonald Road in Irvington. Road work there has centered on lengthening McDonald Road, which connects to an interchange with Interstate 10.

The fine is one of the largest levied by the Mobile office in the last 12 months, according to a Press-Register examination of OSHA records. OSHA proposed a $60,000 fine earlier this year against Citation Corp. for violations at its Brewton foundry, but reduced that fine to $18,500 after negotiations.

All of the violations that OSHA found at the RaCon site were related to excavation and trench safety. The federal agency has extensive standards relating to how workers must be protected when working in trenches because many workers have been injured or killed when earthworks collapse.

FULL story at link.