BOSTON – On Feb. 24, 2021, at a sewer repair worksite on High Street in downtown Boston, Jordy Alexander Castaneda Romero, 27, and Juan Carlos Figueroa Gutierrez, 33, died after a dump truck struck and pushed them into a nine-foot deep trench.

PUEBLO, CO – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has again cited a Pueblo home manufacturing company for exposing employees to defective scaffolding and ladders, and failing to train workers on scaffolding safety.

NEW HAVEN, CT – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Dimeo Construction Co., the Connecticut Department of Labor’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health and the New Haven Building Trades signed a partnership agreement to promote worker safety and health on the 101 College St. and 100 College St. Pedestrian Bridge construction projects in New Haven.

RAPID CITY, SD ‒ Four days before Christmas in 2020, an excavation company’s owner was fixing an underground sewer line in Rapid City when the trench around him collapsed; his life ended under thousands of pounds of dirt.

DENVER – A worker at a Denver milk packaging plant operated by Safeway Inc. lost four fingers while operating a molding machine that lacked required safeguards.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated the Feb. 12 incident and cited the U.S. supermarket chain for two willful and five serious violations and one other than serious violation for:

PIERSON STATION,  IL – A central Illinois grain-handling cooperative exposed workers to serious engulfment hazards when soybeans collapsed inside a Pierson Station bin and engulfed an employee up to their waist.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor encourages the nation’s employers to commit to workplace safety and health and join its Occupational Safety and Health Administration in observing Safe + Sound Week, Aug. 9-15, 2021.

A nationwide event that recognizes the successes of workplace safety and health programs, Safe + Sound Week also offers information and ideas on how to keep America’s workers safe.

LAKEWOOD, NJ – A Central New Jersey medical facility and temporary staffing agency failed to ensure the safety and health of nurses giving flu shots and testing potentially infectious patients for the coronavirus earlier this year, a U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation has found.

TAVARES, FL – In the early afternoon of March 2, 2021, a 44-year-old electrical technician at an Orlando work site climbed down into a trench to splice electrical wires to power streetlights. Not long after, the worker made contact with live wires and suffered fatal electrocution, a death the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigators deemed avoidable had the employer taken required safety measures.  

DALLAS ‒ A worker cleaning the inside of a tank trailer in Pasadena in December 2019 fell victim to hazardous vapors, as did a co-worker who attempted rescue. Months later, in August 2020, two cleaning workers entered a natural gas tanker on a railcar in Hugo, Oklahoma and fell victim to its vapors. Four lives were lost in the tank cleaning industry in less than a year – and part of a troubling trend of preventable workplace deaths in the region.

DALLAS ‒ Un trabajador que limpiaba el interior de un remolque tanque en Pasadena en diciembre de 2019 fue víctima de vapores peligrosos, al igual que el compañero que intentó rescatarlo. Meses más tarde, en agosto de 2020, dos limpiadores que entraron en una cisterna de gas natural de un vagón de ferrocarril en Hugo, Oklahoma, también fueron víctimas de los vapores.

CHICAGO ‒ An Ohio worker tasked with cleaning a chemical tanker trailer collapsed upon entering the tank. Answering the employee’s call for help, a nearby truck driver entered the tank. Both workers succumbed to fatal toxic fumes.

GREENVILLE, GA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has again cited a Greenville recycling company, where a 44-year-old welder employed by a contractor in the facility suffered fatal injuries in 2019 amid safety violations.

MEDINA, OH – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited a Millersburg contractor – with a history of not cooperating with federal safety inspectors – for exposing workers to deadly fall hazards for the sixth time in three years– while fall protection equipment remained unused at a Medina residential work site.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has published a Request for Information seeking information and public input as the agency considers updates to its mechanical power presses standard.

SEATTLE – More than 40 reported large fires in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington have consumed tens of thousands of acres and released significant amounts of smoke in the atmosphere, leading the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration to remind employers to protect employees working in areas where wildfires could spark or where smoke may be a concern.

PHILADELPHIA – The U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Shipbuilders Council of America and its associate members have signed a two-year alliance to protect shipbuilding workers in the Mid-Atlantic region from workplace safety and health hazards. 

The alliance will:

TRENTON, FL – On just his third week working for a Trenton manufacturer, a 21-year-old machine operator’s life changed forever. On Feb. 1, 2021, the operator suffered a partial hand amputation because the company allowed protective guards to be removed from a machine that cuts sheet metal for the roofing industry.

EAU CLAIRE, WI – The success of the partnership between the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Chippewa Valley Technical College has led OSHA to reaffirm its commitment to training employers and workers on workplace safety, and in recognizing the college by elevating CVTC to Ambassador Alliance status.

GAINESVILLE, GA – On Jan. 28, 2021, six workers went to work at a Gainesville poultry processing facility unaware that they would not return home. Just after their shift began, a freezer at the plant malfunctioned, releasing colorless, odorless liquid nitrogen into the plant’s air, displacing the oxygen in the room.