NEW YORK – A Long Island superstructure, foundation and concrete company will pay $135,612 in penalties stemming from the collapse of an approximately 30-foot deep trench in Oyster Bay that led to the deaths of two workers.

OXFORD, OH – Without proper safety measures taken, gases and or vapors in a confined space may overcome a worker or a lack of oxygen may suffocate them. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that from 2011-2018, there were 1,030 confined space-related workers deaths.

RIPON, WI – A forklift struck and seriously injured a 60-year-old seasonal employee as she walked toward a pallet to label products for shipping at a Ripon facility where vegetables are canned for Libby’s and several other brands.

HOUSTON – In January 2019, a worker at a Holiday Inn Express & Suites hotel in Waller alerted their employer that exposure to carbon monoxide made them ill and asked the employer to call an ambulance. In addition to refusing the worker’s request, the employer allegedly threatened to terminate the employee. After going to the hospital, the worker was terminated.

BRIDGETON, MO – After a production operator at a carbon fiber manufacturer brought various safety concerns to management, he approached a third-party auditor reviewing operations at the company’s St. Peters facility with his concerns. The next day, his employer suspended him.

FARGO, ND – A North Dakota seed production company has committed to changing its safety procedures and training following a worker’s severe and life-altering injury in 2020.

CHARLESTON, WV – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has signed a two-year alliance with West Virginia University Safety & Health Extension and West Virginia State Consultation Program to provide safety and health information, guidance and training to OSHA Training Institute Education Center participants.

EL PASO, TX – Construction is a high hazard industry that comprises various activities that can expose workers to serious injuries. Depending on the job, construction workers may face falls, trench and scaffold collapses, slips, trips and other dangers.

WASHINGTON, DC ‒ Today, six of every 10 workers trapped in a grain bin don’t make it out alive. This is a frightening reality, but one that the nation’s 8,378 off-farm grain storage facilities’ operators can change by following common sense approaches that truly may be the difference between life and death.

LAKEWOOD, NJ – Despite two severe amputation injuries in 2018 and 2020 on the same machine at a Lakewood ice cream manufacturing plant, a recent federal safety and health inspection found the company continues to ignore protocols designed to prevent other workers from suffering similar injuries.

WASHINGTON, DC – In response to President Biden’s executive order on protecting worker health and safety, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has launched a national emphasis program focusing enforcement efforts on companies that put the largest number of workers at serious risk of contracting the coronavirus.

CHICAGO – Working at a Chicago shipping facility, an employee suffered a leg amputation and crushed pelvis after he fell off and was then run over by a powered heavy-lift vehicle used to move and stack steel containers. The 30-year-old recent hire suffered injuries after being allowed to ride unsecured on the vehicle.

FORT WORTH, TX – An employee of one of the nation’s largest North American freight railroad networks will receive more than $290,000 in back pay, damages and fees, and be reinstated to their job after the U.S. Department of Labor found the worker’s rights were violated under the Federal Railroad Safety Act.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Excavation work is among the most dangerous in the construction industry. Trenches can collapse around and atop workers, crushing and burying them quickly and sometimes fatally – which has long made trench and excavation protection a vital concern for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

LIMA, OH – While cleaning an auger used to rice potatoes, a 39-year-old production worker found her left arm caught in a running auger. The worker suffered multiple lacerations and the partial amputation of her arm. Co-workers had to cut the auger apart to free her arm.  

BIRMINGHAM, AL – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has signed a strategic partnership with Brasfield & Gorrie, in which the agency and construction management firm will promote worker safety and health at the Grandview Physicians Place II project in Birmingham. The University of Alabama’s Safe State program will also support the effort.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced today that it has scheduled the eighth annual National Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction for May 3-7, 2021. OSHA encourages construction employers and other stakeholders to join the event to promote awareness and training to address one of the industry’s most serious dangers.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Two truck drivers for an Oklahoma City roofing and building products company reported to a manager that the tires on a company truck were unsafe. Concerned about their own safety and that of others on the road, the two drivers refused to operate vehicles with unsafe tires. They were terminated in August 2020.

CANTON, OH – Three stories above ground, five workers moved unsteadily atop a Canton apartment building, all of them at risk of a serious or fatal fall because, once again, their employer failed to ensure they used required safety equipment to protect them from falling. Ivan Lowky – their employer – was also working on the roof without necessary fall protection despite having the equipment available.

WEST FARMINGTON, OH – A 14-year-old boy working on the roof of a Berea townhome without required fall protection suffered critical injuries when he fell 20-feet to the ground. Immediately following this serious incident, the company’s owner and three other workers put on personal fall arrest equipment to complete the roofing work in an apparent attempt to conceal the fact that fall protection was not in use at the time of the injury.