Firm must comply with OSHA subpoena or face heavy fines

• A federal court issued an order holding a Nebraska roofing contractor, who has stalled federal investigators for nearly a year, in contempt of court and imposing a fine of $100 a day if he fails to comply with a subpoena to provide OSHA with documents necessary for an investigation of an employee’s fall off a residential roof.
• U.S. District Court Judge Robert F. Rossiter, Jr. of the District of Nebraska found Christopher C. Arps in contempt of court and ordered him to comply with OSHA’s subpoena or face the daily fine.
• The court also ordered Arps to pay $5,926.56 to the department for legal fees and costs incurred and he may be subject to additional sanctions without further notice, including conditional incarceration.
• OSHA opened an inspection at the Lincoln worksite after learning of the incident and determined the employee of Arps – who operates as Capital City Roofing and Construction – was working without fall protection when he suffered cardiac arrest, fell and sustained serious injuries.
  Read more

Ohio music instrument maker cited after amputation

• OSHA cited an Ohio music instrument manufacturer after a worker’s finger was partially amputated in July 2023.
• East Lake-based Conn-Selmer Inc. faces fines after an employee suffered the injury while working with a machine used to manufacture sousaphones.
• OSHA issued a citation for three repeat violations and three serious violations and proposed $273,447 in penalties. Conn-Selmer has 15 business days to contest the citation and penalties.
• This was the sixth amputation injury reported at the facility in the past eight years and OSHA placed the company in the agency’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program.
  Read more

OSHA: No mechanical deficiencies in fatal airport crash

• An OSHA investigation did not identify any mechanical deficiencies in the ground service vehicle used by an American Airlines employee during a fatal crash at Austin’s airport last spring.
• Investigators did not substantiate what Austin police were told when airline staff alleged the 14-ton ground service vehicle had several mechanical issues before the collision, including brake issues that led to a guardrail collision 10 days before the fatal April 20 crash.
• Austin police ruled the death of the American Airlines employee, Michal Ingraham, 37, as accidental before handing off their findings to the OSHA.
• The Fort Worth-based airline and Menzies Aviation, a U.K.-based ground-handling company operating at the city-owned airport, were the subjects of the OSHA investigation.
  Read more

Plumbing contractor could have prevented worker’s death

• A Georgia plumbing contractor could have prevented a 34-year-old employee’s June 2023 fatal fall at a Rome work site by following required safety procedures.
• OSHA learned that a three-person work crew from K&D Plumbing Inc. was replacing a sewer line at Armuchee High School when they encountered a blockage in a pipe. To clear the blockage near the end of a 60-foot-long trench, one worker entered a manhole.
• The worker fell about 20 feet and succumbed to injuries as a result of the fall and subsequent exposure to a high atmospheric concentration of hydrogen sulfide gas.
• The agency proposed $184,387 in penalties.
  Read more