In September, an Allentown, PA, newspaper published a series of articles about employees at an Amazon.com warehouse working in severe heat. Now, the other shoe has dropped: An employee sued Amazon for exposure to cold conditions.
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Several OSHA investigators have been interviewing plant workers to find out what caused a grain elevator in Atchison, KS, to explode. The explosion killed six workers.
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Tags: Bartlett Grain, grain elevator explosion, Grain Handling Facilities Standard
Cal-OSHA is investigating the deaths of two brothers who were working at a compost center in Lamont, CA. They were overcome by fumes in a confined space.
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Tags: CAL-OSHA, confined space, overcome by fumes, protective gear
Like Sammy Hagar, you may not be able to drive 55. But no matter how quickly you’d like to get where you’re going, chances are you’ll stay well under 100 the next time you’re on the open road. The question is why.
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A police investigation into a crash between a tractor trailer and an Amtrak passenger train in Maine says the truck driver was distracted by a cell phone call right before the collision. The crash killed the truck driver and caused $3 million worth of damages to the train.
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Tags: Amtrak, cell phone, distracted driving, fatal truck train crash, Triumvirate Environmental
A newspaper has investigated reports about working conditions at an Amazon.com warehouse that serves one-third of the country. Employee claims point to extreme indoor heat, closed doors when it was hot, work rates that couldn’t be sustained and firing threats when workers couldn’t keep up in the heat.
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Tags: Amazon, closed doors, extreme heat, firing threats, heat index, heat stress, Integrity Staffing Solutions, OSHA inspection, paramedics, The Morning Call
One worker was killed, another remains hospitalized in critical condition after the collapse of a zip line tower on Hawaii’s Big Island.
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Tags: GoZip LLC, Hawaii, internal injuries, tower collapse, zip line
Imagine this: You’re investigating an incident that caused three worker injuries, one of them serious enough to require hospitalization. What are the potential root causes? Lack of safety training? Equipment failure? Sneezing?
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Tags: fire truck, incident investigation, rollover crash, sneezing fit
It’s a safety lesson that needs to be told to workers again and again: If you’re not trained to do so, don’t attempt an emergency rescue at work, especially if it involves entering a confined space.
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Tags: confined space, construction employee, emergency rescue, MIOSHA, sewer
Sure, it will take more time for a worker to completely lock out a machine before clearing a jam. But those extra moments could make the difference between life and death, as this story shows.
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Tags: lockout/tagout, machine jam, tobacco
Investigators are trying to determine how an experienced maintenance worker died while performing a task that others described as “a very routine procedure.”
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Tags: Air New Zealand, Lockheed C-130, routine maintenance, sucked into plane engine
An eight-month investigation reveals 80 employee deaths at companies in OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) between 2000 and 2008. What may be even more shocking: 65% of these companies have maintained their VPP status.
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Tags: Center for Public Integrity, David Michaels, Government Accountability Office, Voluntary Protection Program, VPP
If we asked you to name a well known corporation with an excellent safety reputation, DuPont is one name that might come to mind. But a new report on three gas leaks and a fatality at a DuPont plant calls the company’s safety culture into question.
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Tags: Chemical Safety Board, DuPont, phosgene, preventive maintenance, safety reputation
An official from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) delivered a stinging indictment of the operators of the Upper Big Branch (UBB) mine in West Virginia where 29 miners were killed in an explosion.
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Tags: Massey Energy, mine explosion, MSHA, productivity, records, training, Upper Big Branch, worker intimidation
Two doctors and two of their employees have been indicted on charges involving an alleged $17 million in workers’ comp insurance overbilling. How does something like this happen?
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Tags: California, medical imaging, overbilling, sleep center, Workers' comp, workers' comp fraud
OSHA is investigating the death of a crane operator who was killed when a 6,000-pound steel bar fell on him.
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Tags: crane operator, crushed, steel bar
Michigan OSHA (MIOSHA) is investigating the death of a high school junior inside a corn silo near Standish, MI.
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Tags: 18-year-old killed, grain elevator, MIOSHA, SVEP
State police blame driver fatigue for a bus crash that killed four passengers and injured dozens of others. The crash, and the bus company’s previous record, prompted federal regulators to shut down the carrier.
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Tags: bus crash, driver fatigue, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, four passengers killed
When OSHA wants to make a statement with a large fine, it can ratchet up the amount by multiplying violations by the number of employees. Such is the case in a recent fine involving a Midwest facility.
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Tags: asbestos, cancer, protective clothing, respirators, training, willful violation
An attempt to prevent OSHA from obtaining records from a company’s workers’ comp insurance carrier has failed.
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Tags: deaths of two teenage workers, grain elevator, Haasbach LLC, OSHA subpoena, Workers' comp
Anonymous tips and video surveillance can pay off for companies in workers’ comp cases.
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Tags: permanent total disability, Video, workers' comp fraud
A train operator caused a crash that resulted in 68 injuries and $9.6 million dollars in damages, according to a federal report.
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Tags: Boston, cell phone, MBTA train crash, NTSB, texting
A railroad employee was injured at work, reported it and filled out required paperwork. Weeks later he was fired.
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Tags: fired for reporting injury, OSHA investigation, retaliation, safety bonus, Union Pacific
Usually, a business knows it’s being investigated by OSHA, MSHA, or any other safety agency because the inspector comes to the company’s facility. A recent safety citation shows that’s not always the case.
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Tags: Cobalt Coal Corp., MSHA fines, Spike TV, TV show Coal
OSHA is investigating a fatality in which a worker at a marine terminal was struck by a forklift carrying a large load.
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Tags: crane, marine terminal, OSHA powered industrial truck standards, struck by forklift
It’s almost one year since the oil well explosion in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 workers and caused the biggest offshore spill in U.S. history. A recent news report says the federal government is consolidating its efforts to bring criminal charges against the company and perhaps some of its managers.
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Tags: BP explosion, criminal charges, Deepwater Horizon, involuntary manslaughter, sacrificed safety
You’ve probably heard about OSHA inspections in which the inspector “just happened to be driving by” a construction site, saw problems and decided to take a look. In this case, all the inspectors had to do was look outside their windows.
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Tags: electrified, OSHA inspectors, scaffolding, shocks
An administrative law judge with the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission has upheld fines against an Ohio company. An inspection revealed several employees had symptoms of a potentially fatal respiratory disease after sweeping up pigeon droppings.
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Tags: fatal respiratory disease, histoplasmosis, Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, pigeon droppings, worker struck in head
On March 25, 1911, 146 workers died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. fire in New York City. It’s been called an event that fundamentally changed U.S. workplace conditions. But have workplace safety attitudes really changed in 100 years?
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Tags: BP, fire safety, immigrants, safety attitudes, safety too costly, Triangle Shirtwaist fire, Upper Big Branch mine, workplace conditions
The University of Notre Dame is responsible for the death of a student-worker while he was filming football practice on a scissor lift in high winds, according to a report from Indiana OSHA (IOSHA).
Tags: high winds, IOSHA, Notre Dame, scissor lift, student worker
Federal investigators looking into a fatal duck boat collision last year have provided more evidence that transportation and cell phones don’t mix.
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Tags: cell phone, duck boat crash, fatal collision, National Transportation Safety Board
An investigation by the New York State Attorney General’s office uncovered that UPS had a good internal procedure for inspecting its trucks for safety but failed to use it.
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Tags: cracked frames, inspections, safety plan, truck safety, UPS
In an expanded report on the causes of the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, new details show failure of BP workers to speak up about a problem played a crucial part leading up to rig’s explosion.
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Tags: BP, deadlines, oil spill, team player, workers speak up about safety
“I’ll just be a moment.” “No one would throw the switch while I’m working on the machine.” This workplace fatality shows there’s never a good reason not to lock out equipment while maintenance is being performed.
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Tags: excuses, lockout/tagout, OSHA investigation
Pressure to resume production was a key factor in an explosion at the Bayer CropScience pesticide manufacturing plant that killed two workers, according to a government report.
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Tags: Bayer CropScience, Chemical Safety Board, explosion, maintenance, production pressure
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