Warehouse collapse during severe weather kills two in southern Illinois

Two people died after part of an Amazon warehouse collapsed in Edwardsville, Illinois on Friday evening when severe storms including a tornado rolled through the area. WSIL/KMOV

Employee fatally trapped by machinery outside Chicago

A 61-year-old worker died Thursday after becoming trapped in machinery at a suburban Chicago steel polishing factory. According to the coroner, the cause of death was asphyxia due to a machinery problem. Fed-OSHA is investigating. U.S. Sun

Company fined for exposing employees at Montana plant to arsenic

An Illinois-based company that admitted to exposing employees to arsenic at its now-shuttered Montana plant was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court for Clean Air Act violations. The corporation already has pleaded guilty to exposing employees to inorganic arsenic. The judge sentenced U.S. Minerals to a maximum of five years of probation and a $393,200 fine. Fed-OSHA already has levied civil penalties totaling $106,800. MTPR

Maine roofer acquitted in employee’s death

A jury has acquitted the owner of a Maine home improvement company of workplace manslaughter for the 2018 death on the job of a roofer who worked for him. The employee was also the company owner’s half-brother. Prosecutors argued the owner was responsible for following Fed-OSHA rules that requires roofers to wear a safety harness if they are six feet above ground. WMTW

Feds investigating explosion at Pittsburgh-area steel plant

Fed-OSHA is investigating an explosion that happened at a steel production facility in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania last Monday. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette [with video]

OSHNC fines Winston-Salem after death at landfill

The N.C. Department of Labor imposed a $7,000 fine Monday against the City of Winston-Salem following a fatal workplace incident in which a 63-year-old employee was pinned between the bulldozer and a truck at a city landfill in June. The employee drove the bulldozer at a speed excessive for the landfill, according to the agency, and had three previous accidents within five months while operating heavy equipment and received disciplinary action for “carelessness and recklessness” in operating city equipment. Winston-Salem Journal