OSHA places D&D Manufacturing in Severe Violator Enforcement Program after numerous machine hazards found at Illinois metal stamping facility

BOLINGBROOK, Ill. ‒ A Bolingbrook metal stamping company exposed workers to amputations and other serious injuries repeatedly by allowing numerous machines to operate without safety guards.

On March 30, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited D&D Manufacturing for seven repeat, six serious and four other-than-serious safety violations after an October inspection. The visit came in response to a complaint received by OSHA.

The agency has proposed penalties of $110,110 and placed D&D in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program.

The violations found at the Bolingbrook facility, which also serves as the company’s corporate headquarters, are similar to those discovered less than three years ago at the company’s Southwest manufacturing facility in El Paso, Texas.

“One hundred and seventy-three Illinois workers suffered preventable amputations in 2015,” said Kathy Webb, OSHA’s area director in Calumet City. “OSHA’s common sense safety standards require manufacturers to provide training, safe guards and procedures to prevent workers from coming in contact with the operating parts of a machine. Employers like D&D Manufacturing must do more to protect workers from these debilitating injuries.”

OSHA’s investigation found the company failed to provide:

• Proper machine guarding to prevent contact with moving parts.
• Locking and blocking devices to prevent unexpected machine starts and operation.
• Training to workers on machine hazards and safety procedures.
• Proper storage of compressed gas cylinders

Inspectors also found workers were exposed to live wires and damaged electrical equipment. The company also failed to report an amputation injury to OSHA within 24-hour and maintain accurate injury and illness records, as required.

Since Jan. 1, 2015, OSHA requires all employers to report any severe work-related injury – defined as a hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye – within 24 hours. The requirement that an employer report a workplace fatality within eight hours remains in force. In the first full year of the program, employers nationwide reported 10,388 severe injuries, including 7,636 hospitalizations and 2,644 amputations.

View current citations here.

D&D fabricates metal components for equipment manufacturers. It employs 75 workers in Illinois and about 40 in El Paso. The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director in Calumet City or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or report amputations, eye loss, workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA’s toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency’s Calumet City office at 708-891-3800.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.