ST. LOUIS — Garda Armored Car failed to train its employees to use portable fire extinguishers, despite being cited by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration for the same violation in March 2013. Responding to a complaint, OSHA inspected the armored car company on Oct. 20, 2014, and found that the business had not trained employees as instructed.

NILES, Ohio. — A 49-year-old machine operator was fatally crushed while reaching into an extrusion press to remove unprocessed aluminum parts because his employer, BRT Extrusions Inc., failed to ensure the machine's power was fully off so that it would not turn on during maintenance, a procedure known as lockout/tagout. An investigation into the Aug. 6, 2014, incident by the U.S.

FRANKLIN, Ohio — Mere months after two employees were injured by dangerous machines, Burrows Paper Corp. again put workers at risk. Acting on a complaint, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration found workers unjamming and servicing machines without proper safeguards during an Aug. 25, 2014, inspection. This is the fourth time in the past year that Burrows has been cited for hazards at its Franklin food box manufacturing facility.

MADISON, Ohio — Every year, thousands of people are electrocuted at work by current from live wires and energized parts. Electrical current often enters through the skin, muscles or hair and then spikes through the nervous system, burning tissue in patches. One of those who suffered this kind of injury was a 24-year-old temporary maintenance employee at International Paper Co. in Madison. Burns hospitalized him and left him unable to work for more than four months.

Employer name: Flink Co., 502 N. Vermillion St., Streator, Illinois

Inspection site: 150 Benchmark Drive, Streator, Illinois

On July 23, 2014, an inspection was initiated by the North Aurora Area Office of the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration after receiving a complaint.

Employer name: H & W Contracting, Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Investigation site: Columbia and East Willow Streets, Harrisburg, South Dakota

On July 28, 2014, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Bismarck Area Office initiated an inspection under the National Emphasis Program on Trenching after witnessing workers exposed to trenching hazards.

DALLAS — The dangers of worker exposure to hexavalent chromium, a known carcinogen that can cause serious long-term health issues, including lung cancer and kidney failure, should have come as no surprise to the Lane Plating Works Inc. owner. Air-monitoring tests told him that workers were being overexposed to the dangerous toxin, but he failed to correct the hazard. As a result, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited the Dallas-based chrome plating shop for two willful violations and 19 serious violations.

ARCADIA, Wis. — In a three-and-a-half year period, 4,500 employees at Ashley Furniture Industries Inc., in Arcadia, experienced more than 1,000 work-related injuries. One worker became another terrible statistic when he lost three fingers in July 2014 while operating a dangerous woodworking machine without required safety mechanisms in place. Of the injuries recorded, more than 100 were caused by similar machinery.

ARCADIA, Wis. — In a three-and-a-half year period, 4,500 employees at Ashley Furniture Industries Inc., in Arcadia, experienced more than 1,000 work-related injuries. One worker became another terrible statistic when he lost three fingers in July 2014 while operating a dangerous woodworking machine without required safety mechanisms in place. Of the injuries recorded, more than 100 were caused by similar machinery.

Employer name: Northrop Grumman Corp.

Inspection site: Lake Charles, La.

Date inspection initiated and what prompted the inspection: The inspection began August 2014 as the result of a complaint, but was expanded to also address the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's National Emphasis Program for Hexavalent Chromium.

Employer name: PAI Industries Inc.

Inspection site: 950 Northbrook Parkway Suwanee, Georgia 30024

Date investigation initiated: OSHA initiated the investigation on Oct. 1, 2014 as part of its Regional Emphasis Program for Safety Hazards in the Auto Parts Industry.

TARRYTOWN, New York — Employees of a Brooklyn-based commercial and residential roofing contractor faced the threat of deadly or disabling falls as they replaced the 20,000-square-foot roof of Westchester County's Bedford Hills Elementary School, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has found.

NEW YORK — About a year ago, New York Presbyterian-Columbia University Medical Center in Northern Manhattan replaced linen laundry bags with thin plastic bags that broke and needlessly exposed workers to laundry contaminated with blood, bodily fluids and other infectious materials.

Clothing, sheets, towels and other soiled laundry spewed onto the floor of the basement when bags broke or failed to stay closed as they came down laundry chutes. Employees were further exposed as they gathered and repacked the laundry.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — A second explosion in four months at the Indianhead Biomass Services plant in St. Augustine has left two laborers severely burned. An inspection by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that two men in their 50s attempted to shut down a sawdust dryer to unclog an outlet vent. This created an explosive environment when smoldering embers ignited the sawdust inside the dryer.

Employer name: Plastic Molding Technology Inc.

Site: El Paso, Texas

Date initiated: The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration initiated the November 2014 inspection under the National Emphasis Program on Amputations. The NEP is designed to identify and reduce workplace hazards that cause or are likely to cause amputations.

BOISE, Idaho — Ernesto Paramo never knew his shift on August 4 would be his last, leaving his family and friends to grieve his untimely death. The 30-year-old welder clocked in as he had many times before and then went to work at Superior Steel Products Inc. Paramo was in an unsecured basket raised improperly on a forklift about nine feet off the floor when the basket fell off a forklift onto the concrete floor below. Sadly, Paramo is not alone; in the past year, nearly one-in-four Idaho workplace fatalities were a result of improper forklift use.

TOLEDO, Ohio — Twice in two years, employees at P & W Painting Contractors were found in danger of falling as they worked on top of machines and elevated platforms more than 14 feet off the ground. After a complaint was filed, U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors identified one repeated and eight serious safety violations, including lack of fall protection and forklift hazards at the company's Toledo facility. OSHA has proposed penalties of $40,040.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Tangled extension cords, overloaded power outlets in wet locations, blocked exits, faulty forklifts, machines without safety guards and damaged floors — all in a hazardous day at work for employees at Xpedited Services LLC's warehouse in Jersey City, an inspection by U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigators found.