OSHA Actions
Scaffold company cited after collapse in NYC
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited a New York scaffold company for safety violations after an accident that killed a building resident near New York City’s Times Square.
OSHA proposed penalties of $26,000 against Universal Builders’ Supply of Mount Vernon, NY, for four alleged serious violations of federal safety standards. The company can contest the penalties.
OSHA took the action as the result of an investigation following the July 21, 1998, accident at Broadway and 43rd Street in Manhattan, in which scaffolding being used in the construction of the 4 Times Square Conde Nast Building collapsed. A resident of the 14-story Woodstock Hotel, on the opposite side of 43rd Street, was killed when a section of the elevator tower fell across the street and went through the hotel’s roof. Twelve workers on the building site received minor injuries.
The government agency cited the employer for these alleged serious violations:
- failure to ensure that mast tower bolts were maintained for tightness;
- failure to provide scaffold components designed for four times the maximum intended load;
- failure to provide scaffold components designed by a registered professional engineer;
- failure to provide all necessary scaffold bracing.
OSHA cited the company for three alleged serious violations June 26, 1998, for an accident in which a worker was killed by a descending hoist. The violations cited included failure to properly guard the hoist shaft and failure to shut down the hoist when employees worked in or near the shaft. The company has contested the violations, which carry proposed penalties of $9,000, and declined to comment.
Proposed $1.6 million fine for unguarded machine
More than 60 cases involving crushed fingers on unguarded machines at an Ohio auto parts manufacturer have resulted in more than $1.6 million in proposed penalties against Tomasco Mulciber in Columbus.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman announced the proposed penalties recently, saying that an inspection by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration identified 80 instances of machine-guarding deficiencies contributing to serious hand injuries at the Columbus plant in the past four years. The accidents included finger amputations.
"This company allowed workers, including many temporary employees, to work on unguarded machines in spite of the inordinate number of injuries," Herman says. "It’s disturbing that many guards already in place were deliberately bypassed. The apparent indifference and reckless disregard to workers’ safety and health exhibited at this plant will not be tolerated and warrants stiff penalties."
OSHA cited the company for 28 alleged willful violations of machine-guarding requirements for power presses and resistance-welding machines, with proposed penalties totaling $1.57 million. OSHA also cited the company for 17 alleged serious violations of the lockout/tagout, mechanical power press, confined spaces, and electrical standards. Those alleged violations resulted in $71,000 in proposed penalties.
Charles Jeffress, assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, adds that more than two-thirds of the welding and assembly machines inspected at the plant were not guarded. Inspectors found 26 unguarded resistance welding machines. Jeffress says employees were subject to serious hand injuries "because the plant’s management refuses to adhere to basic safety regulations."
Tomasco employs 460 permanent workers and 160 temporary workers at the Columbus plant, building front-end frames for Honda of America. OSHA conducted the recent inspection as part of the agency’s Interim Targeting Plan to inspect companies with the highest injury and illness rates. Tomasco was targeted because it had a lost workday injury and illness rate of 13.3 — nearly double the national rate of 7.5 for auto parts manufacturing companies. A review of the company’s injury records revealed a high number of crushed-hand injuries, so OSHA conducted a comprehensive safety and health inspection.
OSHA officials note the company’s temporary workers were at exceptional risk of crushing their hands, suffering more than two-thirds of the injuries. Temporary workers made up one-fourth of the plant’s work force, but they were nine times more likely to be injured on a machine, according to OSHA.
Tomasco has been inspected by OSHA five times since 1988, all in response to formal employee complaints.
Lockout/tagout violations blamed for grisly accident
A Massachusetts company has been fined $115,500 for a gruesome accident that illustrates why the lockout/tagout standard is so important.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Atlantic Coast Fisheries Corp. in New Bedford, MA, for alleged willful and serious violations related to the July 30, 1998, death of a worker. According to an OSHA report, the accident occurred when two employees of the plant’s rendering department were cleaning the inside of a large ribbon blender, which is used to process remnants. A cleaning hose accidentally brushed up against the blender’s on/off switch, activating the blender and causing its blade shaft to begin rotating.
One worker was able to grab an overhead pipe and pull himself to safety, but the second worker suffered fatal injuries when he became caught in the rotating blade. OSHA’s lockout/tagout standard requires that such machinery will be shut down and its power source physically locked out before workers clean, service, or perform maintenance. Among other measures, the standard requires employers to develop and use machine-specific lockout procedures, train employees in those procedures, annually review its lockout program, and ensure lockout devices are affixed to the power source before employees begin working on the machine.
No procedures + no training = tragedy
OSHA inspectors determined that in this case, the blender’s power source was not physically locked out, the company had not developed lockout procedures for the three blenders at the work site, and employees had not received lockout training. The company had not reviewed its existing lockout program for the past six years, according to OSHA.
Atlantic Coast Fisheries Corp. processes frozen fish and employs 255 workers at the facility. The government agency also cited the company for other safety violations, including unguarded machinery, a blocked and unmarked exit door, blocked access to an eyewash, deficiencies with respirators, and improperly maintained fire extinguishers.
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