Caterpillar Plant Sees Sixth Fatality Since 2021

Caterpillar’s Mapleton, Illinois foundry is now facing two OSHA investigations after the second death of a worker on the job in less than two months.
The latest accident, on Aug. 7, is the sixth fatality at the location since December 2021.
A June 2022 incident resulted in workers threatening to strike.
A subsequent OSHA investigation found that the foundry routinely exposed employees to unprotected fall hazards as they worked within four feet of deep ceramic containers of super-heated molten iron.
In that incident, OSHA cited Caterpillar for one willful violation and proposed fines of $145,027.
Caterpillar employs more than 800 workers at the foundry, which provides engine components used for construction and mining equipment, off-highway diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives.
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Former Virginia Labor Commissioner Courtney Malveux has joined Richmond law firm McGuireWoods as a partner in its Labor & Employment Department.
He will be representing employers nationally in investigations and citations by the OSHA and other regulatory agencies, according to the firm’s announcement.
From 2010 to 2013, he served as commissioner of the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry, during which time he was president of the National Association of Government Labor Officials.
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The operators of a Harbor Bridge project crane that malfunctioned in the Port of Corpus Christi, Texas and caught fire last year have reached a settlement with OSHA, agreeing to comply with approved procedures and inspections instead of paying fines totaling $62,500, according to an investigation by the local newspaper, the Caller Times.
In the April 2023 incident, at the construction site of the new bridge, an 18,000-pound bucket of concrete that had been suspended overhead fell into the work zone below the tower crane, injuring a bystander.
After OSHA last December cited bridge developer, Flatiron/Dragados, for four serious violations and four separate fines, the company contested the findings.
Subsequently, the four citations were deleted in exchange for agreements that the crane company made to comply with specific safety standards.
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