KISSIMMEE, FL – Federal workplace safety investigators have determined that the operator of a Kissimmee grocery store could have prevented a 65-year-old clerk’s fatal fall from a defective ladder by following required safety procedures.

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BEAUMONT, TX – Two employees of a national tank cleaning company suffered injuries when exposed to hydrogen sulfide – a flammable, highly toxic colorless gas – that was present during the cleaning process ­­of a tanker truck on April 25, 2023, in Beaumont. Two municipal firefighters responding to the scene also suffered injuries from the gas. 

Employer:                                          Brookens Construction LLC

                                                                 6592 Lake Road, Suite D

NEW YORK – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent injunction ordering a Rockland County roofing contractor and its principal to provide employees with fall protection equipment and make sure it’s used at all company worksites, as required by federal law. The order finds that, by allowing employees to do roofing work without fall protection, the company is exposing them to imminent danger of death or serious harm.

DECATUR, IL ‒ A lack of preventative maintenance on the explosion suppression system of a bucket elevator was a major factor in an April 20, 2023, explosion at Archer-Daniels-Midland Company’s West Plant that resulted in the hospitalization of three employees with burns and other injuries and extensive damage to the grain elevator, federal investigators found. 

NEW YORK – Two employees of a Bronx water and sewer line construction contractor were fatally injured in a trench at a construction site at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens on April 3, 2023. These fatalities could have been prevented if their employer, Triumph Construction Corp., had ensured proper safeguards, a federal investigation found.

TULSA, OK – Three federal workplace safety and health investigations that followed the April 2023 death of a worker at a Tulsa manufacturing facility found the company exposed employees to struck-by hazards and identified 36 violations, including 25 serious safety violations of U.S. Department of Labor regulations. 

WARREN, OH ‒ U.S. Department of Labor investigators examining the cause of a March 2023 explosion and fire at a Warren auto battery manufacturing plant and investigating other safety complaints identified 19 safety and health violations after opening four separate inspections in less than a two-week period.

ANDOVER, MA – A Wilmington fabricator of advanced alloys failed to adequately protect its employees against exposure to the toxic substance beryllium adequately, a U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspection has revealed. 

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – For roofing workers without required fall protection, one wrong or unsteady step can lead to serious, debilitating injuries or worse, a danger to which two Florida contractors exposed 12 workers at a Davie worksite in April 2023. 

READING, PA – The U.S. Department of Labor has found a well-known Pennsylvania candy maker failed to evacuate employees after some reported smelling gas before a March 2023 explosion that killed seven workers at the company’s West Reading facility.

Employer:                                          Dolgencorp LLC, operating as Dollar General

404 East Pioneer St.

Crandon, Wisconsin 54520

WAYNE, NJ – The U.S. Department of Labor has entered into a settlement agreement with a New Jersey building contractor who allowed their subcontractors’ employees to work in close proximity to high-voltage power lines at a Paterson work site in 2021 and 2022.

BOISE, ID ‒ The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment in federal court requiring a Boise dog daycare facility and its former owner to pay $50,000 in general and punitive damages for terminating two employees unlawfully for raising workplace safety concerns about being exposed to the risk of the coronavirus amid the pandemic in June 2020.

KEY LARGO, FL – A 29-year-old employee of a Florida marine construction company drowned in five feet of water after being pinned under a fallen crane in March 2023. Federal workplace safety investigators determined the company could have prevented the fatality by following required safety standards.

IRVINGTON, NJ – Federal workplace safety inspectors have cited an Irvington contractor who exposed employees to potentially deadly falls by allowing them to do roofing work atop a two-story home in Bergen County without required fall protection in March 2023. 

KANSAS CITY, MO – An Oklahoma construction contractor entered into a deferred prosecution agreement and agreed to pay $370,660 in criminal and civil penalties to avoid federal prosecution on one count of ignoring federal safety regulations that resulted in a worker fatality in St. Joseph in 2019.

ATLANTA – A federal workplace safety investigation has found an Augusta battery manufacturer exposed employees to unsafe levels of lead, a determination based on personal air monitoring of workers and lead accumulation on respirators and counters in areas where workers took lunch breaks.

OKLAHOMA CITY – A U.S. Department of Labor workplace safety investigation found that a Caney contractor could have prevented a trench collapse that fatally injured a project manager at a McAlester work site in May 2023.