Last week in the workplace: Of note, three fatalities related to forklifts. Also, while OSHA removes workplace fatalities from its homepage and buries them on their website without victims’ names, you’ll continue to find them here.
Two weeks ago, OSHA gained new political leadership in Deputy Assistant Secretary Loren Sweatt. And now we’re seeing the first impact of the Trump-Acosta-Sweatt regime at OSHA: A brazen attempt to hide from the American public the extent of workplace fatalities in this country.
The Tampa Bay Times has published a fascinating and tragic investigative piece on the June 29, 2017 incident where five workers at Tampa Electric — Michael McCort, 60, Christopher Irvin, 40; Frank Lee Jones, 55, Antonio Navarrete, 21, and Amando J. Perez, 56 — lost their lives at the Big Bend Power Station after management forced them to do a procedure that they knew was hazardous.
I wrote a few weeks ago about the death of three workers in a confined space incident where the initial worker passed out and two would-be rescuers died attempting to rescue the original victim.
FARGO, ND — A contract worker painting stripes on the runway of Hector International Airport was killed in a collision with an SUV early Monday, July 31, 2017, said Shawn Dobberstein, executive director of the Fargo Airport Authority. The name of the worker has not yet been released.
The National Transportation Safety Board today issued a Safety Alert warning rail workers of the risks of working on the tracks using only a watchman/lookout to provide the train approach warning.
Safety Alert 066 was prompted in part by the deaths of two rail workers who were struck and killed by a train in Edgemont, South Dakota, Jan. 17, 2017.
Police say a construction worker was found dead, pinned in an elevator shaft after he returned to his worksite to retrieve something he’d forgotten. Stephen Simpson, 53, a Brooklyn resident, was pronounced dead Sunday after fellow workers discovered his body pinned in the shaft of the 56-story Manhattan luxury building at West 41st Street and Tenth Ave.
A report published recently by the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) shows the need on the part of some companies to make changes, according to the organization.
During 2003–2013, fatality rates for oil and gas extraction workers decreased for all causes of death except those associated with fall events, which increased two percent annually during 2003–2013.
To better understand risk factors for these events, CDC examined fatal fall events in the oil and gas extraction industry during 2005–2014 using data from case investigations conducted by OSHA.
OSHA this week proposed delaying the compliance date for the electronic reporting rule, Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses, from July 1, 2017, to Dec. 1, 2017. The agency says this will allow it time to “further review and consider the rule.”