On average, about 95 people are killed each year in lawn-mowing incidents. A worker for New Castle County in Delaware is a recent victim.
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Tags: ANSI, consumer product safety commission, killed mowing lawn, riding mower
A commuter rail system and its former operating contractor want to use federal law to limit their liability in a deadly train crash caused by a texting employee.
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Tags: Connex, Metrolink crash, settlement
Ingredients for disaster: flammable materials, confined space, no emergency responders on site.
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Tags: Cabin Creek explosion, Chemical Safety Board, five workers killed, Xcel Energy
A federal agency says it’s overburdened and understaffed, and as a result, other investigations will suffer because of its work on the BP oil rig explosion.
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Tags: BP disaster, Chemical Safety Board, ConAgra Slim Jim explosion, Kleen Energy explosion
The federal government has reported the smallest annual total of workplace deaths since the census of occupational injuries was started.
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Tags: 2009 workplace deaths, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Hilda Solis, workplace fatalities
Sure, a $16.6 million OSHA fine sounds like a lot of money. But that might be only the tip of the iceberg in the case involving an explosion at a Kleen Energy construction site.
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Tags: explosion, federal lawsuit, Kleen Energy
A cautionary note to pass along to employees who weld outdoors: Hot weather can add to the risk of an explosion.
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Tags: 2 workers killed, explosion, oil vapors
Once again, BP will pay the largest fine in OSHA history, breaking its own previous record. But, the oil giant also faces a half-billion dollars in additional costs as part of its settlement with the federal safety agency.
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Tags: BP Texas City refinery explosion, failure-to-abate fines, largest OSHA fine
China is on the verge of overtaking the U.S. as the world’s top manufacturer. Some use Chinese competition as a reason why OSHA’s regulations shouldn’t be stricter. However, a recent newspaper article paints a picture of workplace safety in China that no one would want.
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Tags: China, ignore deaths, mine owners, productivity tops safety, safety regulations
Pop quiz: Do workers need to check underneath their vehicles before driving away?
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A February explosion in Middletown, CT, that killed six workers, injured 50 others and ravaged an under-construction energy plant has prompted OSHA to issue its third-largest fine ever.
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Tags: cut corners, explosion, Kleen Energy, natural gas, third largest OSHA fine
While BP still works on cutting off the leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico for good, another safety matter waits in the wings for the company: settling citations issued by OSHA for two of its refineries.
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Tags: BP, OSHA, Sen. Al Franken, Sen. Patty Murray, Texas City refinery
A worker falls to his death while upgrading a communication tower. An OSHA investigation showed that the worker had, for some reason, detached himself from his fall protection. Is the company at fault?
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Tags: fall protection, unpreventable employee misconduct, worker falls
“Safety needs to come from the top.” You’ve probably heard that one before. However, a federal agency had to remind a public transit provider of that again in its report on what caused a fatal train crash in Washington, DC.
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Tags: National Transportation Safety Board, train crash, Washington DC Metro
Here’s a question for employees: If an item falls into a large trash compactor by mistake, is it worth risking your life to try to retrieve the item?
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Tags: crushed, trash compactor, video surveillance
Even though workers’ compensation is supposed to be the exclusive remedy for workplace injuries and death, lawyers will find a way to make someone pay even more, especially in the case of a fatality.
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Tags: gross negligence, hot oil heater, National Fire Protection Association, Workers' comp, workplace death lawsuit
This story provides an important reminder for workers: They can put their lives at risk while trying to save a co-worker. The best action is to contact trained emergency responders.
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Tags: drown, rescue, vat of ketchup
The New York Times reports that Wal-Mart has spent $2 million so far fighting a $7,000 OSHA fine in connection with the trampling death of a worker. Equally interesting is that OSHA has also devoted lots of resources to make sure this fine sticks. Why? Because the outcome of this case could have wide reaching effects on all sorts of companies.
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As a safety pro, you’ve probably contemplated this question: Are minimum government regulations enough to keep my employees and/or customers safe? It’s a question that probably should be asked in connection with the sinking of a tourist-filled duck boat in Philadelphia that killed two passengers.
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Tags: duck boat crash, government regulations, keep employees safe
Police are trying to determine whether to file murder charges against an accused shoplifter who knocked over a store clerk while allegedly trying to steal a TV.
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Twenty-five years ago, a workplace incident caused an employee to lose an arm. He struggled to learn to use a prosthetic limb and return to the job that he loved. That perseverance and courage may have cost Henry Lira his life.
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Tags: amputated, killed in wood chipper, lost arm
It must be a case of deja vu for the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB). Five years ago it was investigating an explosion in Texas that killed 15 BP workers. Now it will investigate the Gulf explosion and spill that killed 11 BP workers.
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Indictments have been returned against United Oil Recovery Services and three of its managers in connection with a worker’s death in 2008.
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Tags: hydrogen sulfide, indictments, managers charged in death
In the wake of the April 20 oil rig explosion that killed 11 workers, an article by ProPublica, an investigative journalism website, quotes former BP employees as saying management pressured or harassed them not to report safety problems.
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Tags: BP, David Michaels, injury logs, pressured not to report safety problems
OSHA has fined a Belvedere, IL, company $510,000 in connection with a December 2009 explosion that killed a bystander.
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Tags: bystander killed, explosion, NDK Crystals, willful violations
An employer encouraged carpooling when some of its workers didn’t have transportation to work. Is the company now on the hook for workers’ compensation benefits after a fatal car crash?
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Here’s a reminder for workers that aluminum ladders and overhead power lines can be a deadly combination.
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Tags: aluminum ladder, burns, power lines
Federal mining safety officials will look into a worker fatality at a lime plant in Arkansas.
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Tags: crushed, mining safety, vacuum
A South Dakota company now faces $1.61 million in citations.
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Tags: confined spaces, engulfed and smothered, Fatality, million-dollar fine, South Dakota Wheat Growers
Authorities in China are trying to deal with a cluster of suicides at a factory that employs 300,000 workers near Shenzhen.
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Do you require employees in safety-sensitive jobs to report whether they use certain prescription medications? You may want to pass this story along to them as a reminder why it’s so important that they comply with your company’s policy.
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A few months ago, we told you about a 14-year-old high school freshman who was pulled into a wood chipper and killed while working for a lawn-care company. The teen had been living with the company’s owner. Now, the Virginia Dept. of Labor and Industry has decided on a penalty.
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Tags: killed in wood chipper, teen's death, Virginia Dept. of Labor and Industry
Seven-figure OSHA fines are becoming more common, especially in cases when the agency believes the company acted with willful disregard to safety.
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In the wake of a bizarre workplace fatality, here’s some advice for workers who manually move equipment weighing thousands of pounds: If the load starts to shift, just get out of the way.
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Tags: crushed by a safe, fatally crushed, manually move equipment
Sources have told a newspaper that federal authorities are interviewing current and former Massey Energy employees as part of a “sprawling criminal investigation” into the April 5 fatal explosion in the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia.
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Tags: criminal charges, Massey Energy, miner fatalities, Upper Big Branch mine
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