$378K fine: OSHA says company defied safety rules

April 25, 2011 by Fred Hosier

Posted in: Electrical safety, In this week's e-newsletter, Injuries, Latest News & Views, lockout/tagout, OSHA news, Who Got Fined and Why?

A Midwest green energy company now knows that getting caught in OSHA’s Severe Violators Enforcement Program (SVEP) results in huge fines.

OSHA has proposed $378,000 in penalties for Outland Renewable Services, based in Minnesota, for six willful, egregious safety violations. That’s $63,000 per violation — 90% of the $70,000 maximum OSHA can issue in a case such as this.

On Oct. 20, 2010, Outland technicians were performing maintenance at the Iberdrola Streator Cayuga Ridge South Wind Farm in Odell, IL.

An unidentified technician suffered third degree burns to his neck, chest and arms, and second degree burns to his face as a result of an arc flash that occurred when a transformer was unexpectedly energized by another worker.

OSHA says Outland failed to ensure technicians working in the wind farm towers affixed their own lockout/tagout devices on switch gear at the ground level. That created the possibility other workers could energize transformers in the turbine towers where technicians were working about 350 feet above ground.

OSHA issued citations to Outland for exposing technicians to electrical hazards from the unexpected energization of transformers.

The egregious violations in this case fall under OSHA’s SVEP which focuses on employers that endanger workers by committing willful, repeat or failure-to-abate violations.

Outland says it plans to appeal. The employee has since returned to work.

Outland employs 130 technicians who service wind farms in the U.S., Canada and Japan.

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Tags: egregious violation, lockout/tagout, Outland Renewable Resources, Severe Violators Enforcement Program, willful violation

One Response to “$378K fine: OSHA says company defied safety rules”

Mr. Safety Says:
May 17th, 2011 at 8:25 am
Should a company receive a repeat or willful citation if a similar violation occurred at another facility owned by the same company?
Having worked in the private sector for over 20 years and 12 years with Federal OSHA I would have to say No…to this question.
Time and time again during an inspection or investigation of a manufacturing facility I would bring up the history of the company and see where the company was cited previously in California for something I found in Ohio.
As much as they are “one company” most facilities operate and have their arms around what happens in their particular facility. They really have no control or in most cases even know of what happened in some obscure plant in California.
I truely believe a facility….standing alone…should be responsible for what they can control and not be responsible for what may have occurred in some other part of the country.
OSHA should give a facility, standing alone, credit where credit is due. Its extremely self defeating to a safety manager or a safety team that is working hard and then get a repeat or willful citation for similiar violations only because “the company” was cited two years previously for a violation that happened in some other state.
OSHA should not be about the money….should not be about the money….with area osha offices working with employers in their particular region. Lets leave what happened in some other state the responsibility of that area osha office.