Owner and manager to stand trial for worker's death

Owner and manager to stand trial for worker’s death

January 6, 2012 by Fred Hosier

Posted in: Compliance, criminal charges, Fatality, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, lockout/tagout, Safety training

A judge has ruled that there’s enough evidence to order a San Francisco company’s owner and one of its managers to stand trial for the death of a pregnant worker who was crushed by a creasing and cutting machine.

Digital Pre-Press International owner Sanjay Sakhuja and press room manager Alick Yeung face involuntary manslaughter charges in the death of Margarita Mojica, 26, on Jan. 29, 2008.

Mojica was crushed in the machine that suddenly activated as she reached into it to set up a job.

The machine functions like a giant, mechanized clam shell. Rescuers had to be called to release Mojica from the machine. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Cal-OSHA fined Pre-Press for failing to train workers on safety procedures, including locking out energy to machines before reaching into the equipment. The machine that crushed Mojica also lacked safety devices required by law.

Sakhuja, Yeung and the company are also charged with violation of state workplace safety laws in connection with a death.

The two men face up to four years in prison and fines up to $250,000, and the company could be fined up to $1.5 million.

Do you think criminal penalties such as jail time should be sought against business owners and managers in certain worker death cases? Let us know in the comments below.

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Tags: death of pregnant worker, owner and manager to stand trial, worker crushed to death

alecfinn

Just to be clear

Actually the article stated clearly a Judge said there is enough to trial.
alecfinn

The article stated clearly there was enough to go to trial.
Guest

A person is knowingly operating their motor vehicle without a passenger side mirror. The person changes lanes from left to right knocking a motor cycle rider off of their bike. Motr cycle rider dies in the hospital. Is the next logical step that the person driving the car goes to jail? They were aware of the hazard and had the means to get it fixed. Now if you think they should go to jail, what if they were on their way to get the mirror fixed?
CA-Mike

If there is a clear and present danger, AND if there is prior knowledge of the hazard that a reasonable person should have known of, AND if there is a failure to act on that prior knowledge…then, YES, there should be criminal charges filed against the supervisory and management persons in control of the operation. However, one must also consider if the supervisor/manager, who is responsible and accountable, had the control and authority to implement change, i.e., Did the supervisor/manager have the fiduciary authority to implement change? If: Yes, then nail their butt in criminal court and send them to jail. If: No, then criminal charges should be filed where the buck ($$) stopped, e.g., upper management and/or ownership. This said, there is one additional element herein that gravely concerns me, and that is OSHA’s ever increasing reliance on proprietary consensus standards, e.g., NFPA, ANSI, ASHRAE, etc. If a worker is injured/killed on the job and OSHA cites a lack of compliance with a proprietary standard (e.g., NFPA 654 – combustible dust) whereby a fee must be paid in order to obtain a copy of said standard, then I believe the criminal court system is on a poor foundation in filing criminal charges based on failure to act; because the OSHA standard is not freely and readily available – “prior knowledge” is weak. I find fault with OSHA relying on standards that are not freely accessible without cost. These proprietary consensus standards are not inexpensive, and therefore are not readily available. I often find industries who are not complaint with all of OSHA’s standards, and those standards most often not in compliance are those not published and freely available on the internet: 29 CFR 1910 or 29 CFR 1926 at: OSHA.gov. Tis a serious fault of our system of administrative laws. Consider for a moment if you were cited for a vehicle code violation, and the only way to know what the violation was, was to pay a fee to an organization who developed…
Ted Bean

Of course there should be criminal penalties for managers who ignore safety procedures. For larger companies, RICO statutes should pull in CEOs who punish managers for slowing production with safety measures–as in the coal mine disasters. I read about an Irish nursing home where the business was put on trial for murder in a negligent death (not sure how trial and punishment works regarding an organization). The point is that employees place their lives and health in the hands of their employers, and when employers betray that trust there should be a personal price to pay–not one that is monetary and insurable.
alecfinn

Uh-Huh killed two people (the woman and a fetus) and only 4 years? Only fines?

What happened to “Depraved indifference”? Or is that only in NY? Or only on tyhe show “Law and Order”? This is an major violation and by not having safety training and devices show a disregard to the working class………

People have severely reprimanded in many forums for being “Too Liberal” as I think the Government need to monitor and enforce safety measures.

This looks like the way things are getting back to the way they were for workers 200 years ago…….