OSHA hits company with hefty fine after worker is scalped
March 24, 2010 by Fred HosierPosted in: Bizarre Accident of the Week, In this week's e-newsletter, Injuries, Latest News & Views, Who Got Fined and Why?
Lack of machine guarding and dangling hair: a combination that can lead to painful injuries.
That’s what happened at Ohio Decorative Products in Spencerville, OH. Now the company also faces $91,000 in OSHA fines.
A worker was scalped when his hair was entangled in an unprotected rotating shaft on a piece of equipment. He was first taken to a local hospital then flown to one in Toledo for treatment.
The company received three OSHA citations — one willful, one serious and one repeat — all for failure to provide proper machine guarding.
OSHA had inspected the company 12 times before and issued 77 citations.
Tags: machine guarded, unprotected rotating shaft, worker scalped
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March 25th, 2010 at 7:30 am
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April 1st, 2010 at 6:45 pm
Typical. Company wont bother to fix stuff. Its a wonder everyone doesnt get killed/maimed/ injured at work.
April 5th, 2010 at 8:58 am
I don’t know about typical (I have been in and managed dozens of factories..) but 77 violations!? Shut them down! Just to play devils advocate here .. was the operator wearing the proper PPE to keep that hair out of the machine?
April 8th, 2010 at 9:01 am
Just when did we become NOT responsible for our own actions? When did we abdicate our own intelligence and ability to think for ourselves? The worker knew his / her hair was long enough to get caught in the machine. The worker had a responsibility to take care of him / her self too. Hair can be trimmed, or kept out of harms way so easily, why did the worker NOT take due diligence and keep it contained? Judgements and fines like this are one reason why our jobs are going overseas. We are fining our factories and losing jobs because of our own stupidity and failure to be responsible for our own actions or failures.
April 8th, 2010 at 10:20 am
Mike, propper PPE or not. There was a lack of machine guarding that caused this accident, or at least precipitate it. As you played the devil’s advocate, may I be allowed to do so? Is there any reason why any company, after having 12 visits and 77 violations, end up receiving another three OSHA citations — one willful, one serious and one repeat — all for failure to provide proper machine guarding?
April 8th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
In the safety management profession it is widely known that the only way to guard humans from getting injured, is to take the human common sense out of the equation. Common sense is not that common. Sure we can hold the guy responsible for his own actions but was he ever told by his employer to tie his hair back? And bigger than that, an unguarded rotating shaft is dangerous for countless reasons, if we want to talk about common sense. Just think about all the 18 yr olds, fresh out of high school, and never had a job before. In most cases they just don’t know until someone tells them.
I am with Joe2 and Mike on 77 violations and 12 visits before this happened? They were already on the “unsafe” radar. They hould have been temporarily shut down until they remedied thier issues.
April 8th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Mike,
Joe pretty much hits the nail on the head here. PPE or not, the machine guarding is ultimately an engineering control that should be put in place regardless of PPE. PPE is to be used as a “last resort” measure for a company; it’s not meant to be the sole means of injury prevention. This company definitely should’ve engineered some type of guarding for this machine first and then on top of that could institute some type of policy/procedure also requiring PPE to be worn on top of that.
With machine guarding, you’re eliminating the wild card (AKA: the employee) as PPE is only good if the employee wears it correctly.
Just my .02
April 8th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
The employee made a very poor decision by not wearing the proper PPE/tucking his hair in. But the company made TWO very poor decisions. The first was to not have adequate guarding, the second was failure to enforce a safety rule (or not have a safety rule at all, same thing) requiring PPE/tuck.
If a company does not promote safety, injuries will happen.
April 8th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
I work with between 130 and 140 clients on average, and in my contract with them it lays out that they will work with the intention of providing a safe place for their employees, my company has the ability to stop work in any of these companies and to terminate the contract at any time for safety. My point is that 77 violations in 12 visits is not working with the intention of providing a safe place to work.
If the senior management does not take workers safety seriously then no-one will, this is probably a senior employee that trains others and the culture has failed them all. That falls on the owner pure and simple.
April 9th, 2010 at 9:27 am
Well-said, Ben.
April 9th, 2010 at 11:44 am
As many of you have commented, this is a company that just flat doesn’t care. OSHA, 77 violations, 12 visits? I work at a medium sized company with 40 operational plants and this is more violations than we have had in my 13 years of employment. The owners and management should be prosecuted. A simple guard to protect the employee might have cost $2K max, and now…with direct/indirect costs, W/C, fines, etc. - you are probably looking at close to a quarter of a million dollars. This is not even to mention the affect it is going to have on the victim’s family and personal enjoyment of life. IT IS SO SAD…SOMETIMES YOU CAN’T FIX STUPID…
April 9th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Ben, “Pure and Simple” is right. However, in these economic down turns companies everywhere are trying to make cuts where they can, and SAFETY is a gift box (for some). I work for a company that use to have three trainers, with Safety meeting every month at four facilities, for all three shifts. Now we have one trainer (me) doing only the required OSHA training, every-other month (it’s a sad commentary). I try to make it out to each site (unofficially) when I can, just to let the guys know that I do care, and to remember what they have been taught regarding Safety. They seem to appreciate my efforts, and know that the cut back hurt everybody, but are necessary if we are to maintain our jobs. Thankfully our accidents has a slight decrease over the past year, with only one major accident where a fellow stepped off a ladder and broke his leg this past January. The key is to remove ignorance where you can by having informative Safety meeting, and by getting everyone concerned about Everyone’s Safety…Good luck to you all out there in these “bad” times.
April 11th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
12 visits and 77 violations. Sounds like a means of funding OSHA and not protecting the employee. Our government agencies seem to be more interested in additional income than they are in public safety.
April 12th, 2010 at 11:22 am
Before you rush to judgement and “shut them down” thereby putting how many Americans out of work and shipping how many more jobs overseas, what exactly were those 77 violations? Minor like a glass of water on a machine, left there by an operator; or a real safety problem and, yes, a missing guard IS a safety issue. Judgement, if that’s what you wish to do, calls us to objectively look at all the facts. Before you shut a business down remember, every job lost forever is one million dollars per year - lost to the economy forever. Sometimes a hefty fine can cause an economic hardship to a company and such a fine can cause a delay in implementing a solution. Fines can be counterproductive in some cases. I would like to see incentive linked to fines. Something like: ‘fix’ this problem within 30 days and the fine will be reduced by the cost of the “fix”. Win-Win-Win. OSHA wins, Employees win, Mfg wins. America wins. Jobs not lost, plants not shut down.
April 12th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Metalman, I don’t get your point. The reason OSHA kept showing up at this company is because “public Safety” was not a concern OF THIS COMPANY!” That is obvious because a worker GOT SCALPED after the 18th time of Machine Guarding violation…John Whorton, “every job lost forever is one million dollars per year lost.” How much is lost when a life is lost? Especially when it is due to repeated neglegence of an irresponsible company?
April 12th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
Joe:
What were ‘the other violations’ that have been mentioned? I have heard a number but noone can document them. Why?
I have seen minor stuff get written up. One was a paper Pepsi cup left by a worker on a machine. But the company got written up and fined. To me, not a violation, but not so to a zealous inspector. An OSHA inspector is a god in his own empire. Piss one off and see what happens.
You ask what a life is worth? Many answers. An Abortion kills a life, costs very little. Does that put a value on life? If so then life is worth very little.
Turn a new automobile into scrap metal, you’ll get about $12.00 per hundred pounds; does that give a true value to a new car? If so, we’re all getting ripped off.
I believe we all agree that a worker was needlessly injured while working. I hope we can agree that a guard might have prevented that injury. I hope we can also agree that the worker had some responsibility to protect himself. Perhaps by implementing PPE and /or shorter hair and more careful operation of the machine. Are we to believe the worker was not aware of his long hair? Are we to assume the worker was not aware of that missing guard? Are we to assume the worker had never used or been trained on that machine so as to be unaware of the potential hazard of long hair?
All I am seeing here is an emotional over-reaction to an accident that could have been prevented; by the worker and by the company.
I believe that just because the company has a number of unexplained and undocumented “violations”, doesn’t relieve the worker of his responsibility to take due diligence with his own safety. He chose to allow his hair to grow to a length where it could pose a hazard to him. He has some responsibility to manage it so he does not get hurt. He also failed.
April 13th, 2010 at 10:53 am
OSHA is required to show up every time there is a report of a safety concern. I have had several visits that were generated by disgruntled former employees that thought they had an axe to grind. None of the visits revielled a single violation. By the way these visits were also from OSHA offices in Ohio. I think that their reputation for investigations are quite fair and there isn’t the nit picking that some agents have.
With that said, it seems pretty obvious that the company messed up twice once for not having or enforcing PPE (which would include hair nets) and for not maintaining their safety guards.
April 13th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
I agree that personal responsibility must be taken into consideration, but ultimately, it is the employer’s responsibility to provide a safe and healthful work environment. However, I want to throw this out there….why was OSHA notified? 29 CFR 1904.39(a) says notification is required only in the event of death or the hospitalization of three or more employees from a single incident. Only one employee was injured here. The standard applies without regard to a company’s history of prior violations.
April 14th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Could be any variety of reasons. Severe enough injury that ambulance or rescue people called OSHA, a fellow employee, etc., I have had cases where OSHA came in because the Fire Department called. One thing I guarentee - company management did not call them…
April 15th, 2010 at 7:32 am
Safety Chaptain, I agree with you totally. I had a lady injuy her arm on a machine. Fire rescue was called. and they called OSHA.