Details

Parent Category: Safety Info Posts

Category: OSHA Compliance Posts

Published: 28 November 2017

An IN automotive manufacturing facility has been fined $224,000 by the Indiana - OSHA for five alleged safety violations following the death of an employee in October. A female worker, 44, died after an incident with a machine at the plant on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2017. The preliminary cause of her death was ruled multiple blunt force trauma, but a final cause has not yet been determined, according to Clark County Coroner. The safety order and violations resulted from an investigation at the facility that began Oct. 23.  Two of the violations were deemed to cause a "high probability of death or serious harm". These violations, totaling $14,000, were a failure to establish and maintain safe work conditions through employees' exposure to being caught in rotating machine parts due to loose clothing; and lack of effective training on hazardous power sources, such as power from moving belts, that could cause employees to become caught or pinched by machinery. The remaining three were violations that the facility management "knowingly [committed] with plain indifference to the law; the employer either [knew] action is a violation or [was] aware of hazardous conditions with no effort to eliminate". These violations, totaling $210,000, were inadequate procedures in identifying how to control the belt and pulley power and how to stop it; failure to properly guard pulleys that were 7 feet or less from the floor or work area, and failure to properly guard rotating belts from employees.  In January, OSHA fined one of the company's Ohio facilities $569,463 for five violations, which are under contest by the company. Those fines came from an investigation following an employee losing his hand and part of his arm while at work.  The company, which specializes in vehicle acoustics and thermal management systems, has 50 locations in more than 20 countries and employs more than 11,000 people. Here are the citations:

Membership Content