Investigating a worksite incident— a fatality, injury, illness, or close call— provides employers and workers the opportunity to identify hazards in their operations and shortcomings in their safety and health programs. Most important, it enables employers and workers to identify and implement the corrective actions necessary to prevent future incidents.

An Alabama newspaper publishing company is facing $145,858 in penalties after an OSHA investigation into an employee injury determined that the company has been exposing its workers to amputation hazards. The incident at BH Media’s Opelika, Alabama facility occurred when an employee suffered a finger amputation when their hand was caught in a stacking machine that unintentionally started while being serviced.

An OSHA investigation into the deaths of four employees of an Illinois chemical plant has resulted in more than a million dollars in proposed penalties against AB Specialty Silicones LLC. The company has been cited for a dozen willful federal safety violations in the explosion and fire at its Waukegan facility on May 3, 2019 that claimed the lives of four workers.

The Georgia facility at which a temporary employee was crushed to death by pallets last week has a history of safety violations and citations by OSHA. Fifty-nine-year-old Willie Bonner reportedly died at the Nichiha USA in Bibb County after a robotic arm knocked him onto a conveyer belt. OSHA is investigating the fatality.

A former manager at an Ohio manufacturing plant will be spending some weekends in jail on charges related to an employee fatality. His associate, another former manager at Extrudex Aluminum in North Jackson, Ohio, will have three months of home confinement. The U.S. District Court sentencing of Brian L. Carder and Paul Love came after each man pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice charges.

A Florida engineering company is facing $185,239 in OSHA-assessed penalties after one of its employees drowned in a water- and mud-filled catch basin at a worksite in Pembroke Pines, Florida. OSHA cited Westwind Contracting Inc. for exposing its employees to excavation and confined spaces hazards. According to the agency, the company failed to:

An Ohio county court has sentenced Jim Coon – a roofing contractor based in Akron, Ohio – to prison after he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of a 39-year-old employee who fell from a three-story roof while working without required fall protection in November 2017.

A stuntwoman’s death on the set of the movie Deadpool 2 was due to her employer’s failure to conduct a risk assessment and other violations, according to WorkSafeBC, the Canadian agency that monitors and enforces workplace safety in the province of British Columbia. In the 2017 incident, stunt double Joi Harris was killed while reportedly riding a motorcycle down a ramp laid atop a set of stairs.

OSHA has cited Howard Industries Inc. – a manufacturer and supplier of electrical transmission and distribution equipment – for exposing employees to struck-by and fall hazards after a fatality at the company’s Laurel, Mississippi, facility. The company faces $53,040 in penalties. The employee was performing a leak test on a transformer when a drive chain supporting the equipment failed.

Like most of us, Leo Bridges and Edward Bryant left for work one day in September 2014, probably thinking about some rest and relaxation when the shift ended. Like many, they figured their managers and employer would ensure they were safe at work. Bridges and Bryant were wrong; they were caught in a fiery explosion in the Flux Building, which OSHA inspectors said occurred because U.S. Steel Corp. put workers at risk, so as not to slow production at its Fairfield facility.