According to the information Northern Wind Inc has been cited for flouting nearly two dozen safety regulations after one of its workers was killed in an ice machine at its Massachusetts plant. It is informed that the employee died in May 2009 after becoming caught in the moving parts of the industrial-scale equipment that activated while he was carrying out maintenance work inside it.
The company has been cited for 23 alleged violations of workplace safety standards. Northern Winds also faces fines totalling almost $67,000. Detail investigation showd that Northern Wind lacked specific steps and procedures to power down and lock out the ice machine’s power source before employees entered it. The OSHA also discovered the company had failed to provide training to workers to recognise and address the dangers of the machine operating without warning.
Brenda Gordon, OSHA’s area director for southeastern Massachusetts, said that this is exactly the type of grave accident that OSHA’s hazardous energy control, or ‘lockout/tagout’ standard, is designed to prevent. In total, the alleged breaches triggered the issuing of 19 serious citations, with $62,800 in proposed fines. The body said it issues such serious citations when “death or serious physical harm is likely to result from hazards about which the employer knew or should have known”.
