OSHA finds Arkansas steel wire company failed repeatedly to protect workers from amputation hazards

Employer Name: Bekaert Corp.
1881 Bekaert Drive
Van Buren, Arkansas

Citations Issued: Nov. 2, 2016

Investigation Findings: A Bekaert Corp. employee suffered amputation while trying to untangle moving wire at the Arkansas facility that manipulates and coats steel products. Inspectors from the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Little Rock Area office found machines that carry steel wire and pulleys with unguarded pinch points, a violation for which OSHA cited the company at the same location in April 2015. The agency identified the most recent violation in an inspection that began July 7, 2016 resulting in penalties for repeat violation.

Proposed penalties: $124,710

Quote: “Despite our warnings, Bekaert Corp. has allowed unsafe activities to occur and now a worker has suffered an amputation as a result,” said Carlos Reynolds, OSHA’s Area Director in Little Rock. “This employer must take seriously its responsibility to protect the safety and health of its employees. We will continue to inspect and cite this facility until the company properly guards its machinery, and complies with all safety requirements.”

Link to citations: https://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/BekaertCorporation_1160277.pdf

Information: Bekaert is a global company specializing in steel wire transformation and coating. The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citation to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the citations and penalties 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 Little Rock Area Office at 501-224-1841.