Agency enforcement getting back up to speed
- OSHA has resumed normal enforcement throughout Florida after suspending most of its enforcement actions in a hurricane’s aftermath.
- With these actions on hold, OSHA provided compliance assistance and outreach to employers and workers involved in the clean-up and recovery operations in 18 counties affected by the storm.
- During the enforcement hiatus, OSHA offered technical assistance to protect the safety and health of thousands of crews and individual workers.
- This assistance included 950 interventions where OSHA removed more than 3,800 employees from hazards.
Airport workers sucked into engine ignored warnings
- A worker killed at an Alabama airport was exposed to multiple warnings about the dangers of being near running jet engines, federal investigators said.
- A preliminary report revealed that workers were warned to stay clear of running jet engines when planes are stopped on the ground.
- The employee was on the tarmac and had apparently set up a safety cone at the rear of the parked aircraft right before she was pulled into an engine and killed.
- The Communications Workers of America identified the employee as Courtney Edwards, 34, of Alabama.
OSHA punished lumber company after worker killed
- OSHA proposed $218,759 in penalties for Carrollton, Texas, lumber that could have prevented the death of an 18-year-old worker who was struck by a forklift at a Rison, Arkansas.
- Investigators found that Hixson Lumber Company LLC allowed the teen to operate a forklift when they were not certified to do so.
- Inspectors learned that the young worker had dropped the forklift’s key after parking the motorized device.
- As the worker searched for the key, the forklift rolled and struck the teenager who was assigned to pull and count lumber, and was unsupervised at the time of the incident.
Colorado firm faces huge penalties after fatal trench collapse
- A4S Construction in Vail, Colorado, faces $449,583 in fines when a trench collapse killed a worker, according to OSHA.
- A worker suffered fatal injuries and two co-workers barely escaped when they were rescued from a trench that collapsed as they installed sewer pipes in a Breckenridge neighborhood.
- OSHA investigators found that other trenches on the project had caved in on previous occasions.
- A4S Construction allegedly refused to install trench protection systems, exposing workers to serious hazards, OSHA said.