News Digest 5-12-2022

 

Flash: Huge Cal/OSHA Penalties in VPP Confined Space Fatality

Four employers face millions in penalties after a contractor’s employee dies from gas exposure. What happened and who are the employers? Click here to find out. Cal-OSHA Reporter

 

OR-OSHA adopts high heat, wildfire smoke rules

Oregon OSHA announced Tuesday the adoption of rules intended to protect employees from high-heat and wildfire smoke hazards. The heat rule addresses access to shade and cool water, preventive cool-down breaks, and prevention plans, information, and training, while the wildfire smoke rule includes an array of exposure assessments and controls, and training and communication. KTVZ

 

Explosion at propane site injures three in Louisiana

An explosion at a propane gas location near Cotton Valley, Louisiana injured three people Monday morning. The explosion comes less than a month after a natural gas pipeline blew up on Barksdale Air Force Base left two men critically injured. Fed-OSHA is investigating. KTBS

 

Electric company employee killed in skid loader accident in southern Minnesota

A 23-year-old employee of Minnesota Valley Electric Company died this week from injuries he sustained after he was struck by a skid loader at a Le Sueur County worksite. He reportedly was riding in the bucket of the loader as it was driven by a colleague, when it ran off the shoulder of a highway into a ditch. The employee was pulled from the bucket by his harness and run over by the skid loader. MNOSHA is investigating. LeSueur County News

 

Maryland high court hears appeal against city of Baltimore for excavation site death

The family of a 20-year-old man who was fatally buried in debris in a wall collapse at a Baltimore excavation site in 2018 has a cause of action against the city for negligence in hiring a contractor who failed to protect its employee, his family’s attorney argued to the Maryland Court of Appeals this week. The city has countered that liability for an employee’s death rests with the contractor, not with the entity that hired the contractor. Daily Record

 

Boston construction contractor restarts work after injuries

Work has restarted at Suffolk Construction sites in Boston, a week after the company conducted a voluntary safety review following two injury accidents in two days at Suffolk jobsites: a collapse at the old Edison Power Plant in South Boston followed by a fall at a building in the city’s South End. All of the company’s jobsites were found by Monday to have complied with applicable safety requirements and were safe to re-open, according to a company representative. NBC Boston