An Illinois concrete company has been cited for safety violations by OSHA following the death of a temporary worker who was fatally crushed while working alone in a permit-required confined space on July 20, 2013.

Workers killed in separate facility incidents hours apart in Neb. and Oklahoma, Qs and As about OSHA’s proposed silica rule and and an airline flight mistake that could have been much worse were among this week’s top EHS-related stories as featured on ISHN.com.

In September 2010, a 48 year-old male worker (Victim I) employed by a village Department of Public Works (DPW) and a 51 year-old male volunteer firefighter (Victim II) of the village Fire Department (FD) died after entering a sewer manhole.

The West Fertilizer plant explosion in Texas garnered a great deal of attention from ISHN.com visitors. Also on their reading list: temp worker safety, confined space tragedies and arc flash hazards. Here are the most-read Facility Safety stories of the year:

Rail Car Services LLC has been cited by OSHA for 11 safety and health violations, including eight repeat, at its Kansas City rail car refurbishing facility. An inspection began following a complaint about previously cited violations that resurfaced and involved fall protection and permit-required confined space hazards.

This year, as in the past, we’ve read several unfortunate headlines about workers being killed on the job, often in permit-required confined spaces. For instance, seven workers were killed performing maintenance work at a brewery owned by the makers of Corona beer.

Central Ready Mix LLC has been cited for 10 serious safety violations by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration after a 39-year-old plant operator was fatally engulfed in a fly-ash storage silo on Aug. 6 at the Middletown gravel company.