Foley Products Co. has been fined $245,546 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for contributing to the death of an employee caught in a concrete plant in Cantonment, Florida. The 19-year-old employee was inside the plant cleaning concrete when the machine restarted.
An OSHA investigation determined that two employees of Foley Products had climbed inside the concrete mixer initially to use a hammer and chisel to chip away hardened concrete. As one of the workers left the mixer, the machine restarted with the other inside.
OSHA inspectors cited Foley Products for willfully exposing workers to crushed-by hazards by allowing them to enter the mixer without making sure to first follow energy-control procedures. The agency also found the company exposed workers to confined spaces hazards by not making sure a safe atmosphere existed inside the mixer before the workers entered and by failing to have an attendant ready to retrieve workers safely.
OSHA also determined the company did not make certain workers were trained and that they understood the safe application and removal of energy controls before servicing machines.
Foley Products Company received one willful violation and six serious violations. The company faces $245,546 in proposed penalties.
“Foley Products Company’s failure to implement well-known safeguards cost the life of a worker just beginning their adulthood,” said Jose A. Gonzalez, area director in Mobile, Alabama, in a statement.
Headquartered in Newnan, Georgia, the precast concrete manufacturer had 30 workers at the Florida job site at the time of the incident. The company employs about 500 workers, serving numerous agencies and municipalities in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
Source: OSHA
