Last summer, an employee was involved in a work accident that took his life. California Occupational Safety and Health stepped in and issued the employer fines for safety violations in regard to the work accident. According to reports, the employee was run over by a dump truck at a work site.
The worker was employed at a construction company. The employee was working behind a dump truck on a track renovation project when the incident occurred that caused the employee to be crushed by the three-axle dump truck. The dump truck was parked at the top of a hill, when suddenly, it rolled down and crushed the employee. Sadly, he was pronounced dead at the scene and following the employee’s death, OSHA initiated an investigation that lasted five months.
Upon conclusion of the investigation, OSHA determined that the employer committed two safety violations, which led to fines totaling over $23,000. According to OSHA, the employer was fined for failure to keep the truck under positive control and failure to ensure that the parking brake was set or that the truck was prevented from moving. The first violation was classified as general while the second violation was classified as serious.
OSHA violation corrections will likely increase the safety for other workers who remain at the construction site. The deceased worker’s family can possibly have a successfully navigated claim in a California courtroom due to the work accident citations. This family will undoubtedly need as much support as possible going forward and receiving monetary damages may help the family as they go through the healing process.
Source: Berkeleyside, Construction company fined $23K after employee death, Emilie Raguso A, March 6, 2014
