Here’s an update of a story we’ve been following. The owner and a manager of a printing company have pleaded guilty to criminal charges in connection with the death of a 26-year-old pregnant employee who was crushed by a machine. The owner faces time in prison.
Margarita Mojica was working at Digital Pre-Press International in San Francisco in January 2008 when she was crushed by a creasing and cutting machine that suddenly activated as she reached into it. The machine works like a giant clam shell. Rescuers had to be called to release Mojica from the machine. She was dead at the scene.
Company owner Sanjay Sakhuja has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and five felony counts of willful violations of Cal/OSHA regulations causing death.
Pressroom manager Alick Yeung pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of violating Cal/OSHA regulations.
The company itself has also pleaded guilty to charges in the case.
Sakhuja faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The company faces a fine of between $50,000 and $150,000. However, if Sakhuja pays the corporate and personal fines before the Oct. 11 sentencing, his time in prison could be reduced to one year, with five years’ probation.
Yeung will be sentenced to three years’ probation.
A judge had previously ruled there was enough evidence for the two men to stand trial for Mojica’s death. If the case had gone to trial, the two men would have faced up to four years in prison, and the company could have been fined $1.5 million.
Cal/OSHA fined Pre-Press for failing to train workers on safety procedures, including locking out energy to machines before they reach into the equipment.
Criminal charges for violating OSHA regulations are rare, but there is evidence prosecutors are using this deterrent more often, recently.
