OSHA announced Monday that Ohio-based aluminum parts maker General Aluminum Mfg. Company has been fined $1.67 million following an investigation into a March 30 fatality at its Ravenna, Ohio, factory.
The fines stem from 38 safety and health violations found after a 43-year-old worker was struck by a machine’s barrier door and crushed to death at the company’s automotive casting plant.
According to OSHA, the worker was loading a part into a machine when the barrier door closed on his head.
OSHA says the company allowed employees to bypass guarding mechanisms designed to protect them from the barrier door closing on them, and that a malfunction in the door’s optic control existed prior to the incident.
Additionally, OSHA identified lockout/tagout procedure issues throughout the facility and claimed the company was aware of them and failed to address them adequately.
OSHA issued four repeat, 18 willful and 16 serious safety and health violations and placed the company in the agency’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program.
“General Aluminum's failure to learn from recent incidents, and follow industry standards and their own company policies created unnecessary and avoidable hazards in its facility. A worker lost his life because the company put the value of production speed before the safety of their employees.” — Jim Frederick, Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health.
General Aluminum Mfg. Company has about 1,200 workers nationwide, including 220 at the Ravenna plant.
