Prevent Tragedy: A John Oliveira & Sons Stamp Concrete Inc. Employee Dies From Safety Violations
A grievous tragedy has recently come to light in East Freetown, Massachusetts. A worker was fatally injured while performing maintenance on a conveyor on September 6th due to safety regulations being neglected at his workplace, John Oliveira & Sons Stamp Concrete Inc.
An investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) revealed that this tragedy could have been avoided entirely by assuming the necessary safety precautions. The worker was crushed between the frame and the conveyer, the power source of which had not been disabled.
“The disregard for safety measures needlessly cost the life of an employee,” said OSHA Area Director James Mulligan. He further emphasized the need for employers to establish and maintain not only their equipment, but all elements of their energy control plans in order to identify and avoid hazardous conditions and protect workers’ safety.
The investigation highlighted that John Oliveira & Sons Stamp Concrete Inc. had failed to:
• Create an energy control program which would have isolated the conveyer’s power source.
• Utilize locks, tags, or other hardware to secure machines and equipment from their energy sources.
• Adequately maintain the soil screener, which had numerous cracks and missing parts.
• Prohibit riding in the front-end loader’s bucket, which put the worker at risk for a crush and fall hazard.
• Record every fatality, injury, or illness on their OSHA Form 300 or equivalent.
Consequently, John Oliveira & Sons Stamp Concrete Inc. was charged with six violations in total, and issued a penalty of $200,905.
Our thoughts and condolences are with the family and loved ones of the employee. We urge employers to be more cognizant of safety protocols in order to prevent such an event from happening again, and to ensure the well-being of their workers.