A newsletter of workplace safety and labor issues
Notes: Seven of the 21 deaths listed here this week were from falls. Hard to believe. Gravity is not a recent discovery. “Only 21 deaths were listed this week. That’s all I could find in the media. But an average of 14 workers are killed on the job every day. That’s 98 per week. Sometimes…
Man run over while overhauling bus at Chicago Heights junkyard Chicago, IL — A man died after being run over by a bus he was overhauling Friday afternoon at a junkyard in south suburban Chicago Heights. Officers responded at 2:17 p.m. to the incident at Wilkins Rebuilders Supply, 171 E. 12th St., according to Chicago Heights…
I’ve been away, so it’s a long, depressing list this week. Lowlights include 11 public employees in states that don’t have OSHA coverage – Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Florida, Colorado, Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma and Ohio: Highway workers, police, firefighters. PennDOT worker killed in I-99 crash LOGAN TOWNSHIP, PA — State police at Hollidaysburg are investigating a…
Bad couple of weeks for workers in Kansas and firefighters across the country. Also two trench deaths and a food processing worker whose leg was ripped off. Last list of workers killed during 2017. Good Riddance. Let’s hope for a better 2018. Man Killed Loading Road Salt at Kentucky Facility Identified LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) —…
Firefighter battling SoCal wildfire dies from ‘thermal injuries, smoke inhalation’ SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — A firefighter died Thursday while working a colossal wildfire burning in coastal mountains northwest of Los Angeles that has become the fourth largest in California history. Cory Iverson was an engineer with a state fire engine strike team based in…
At a Congressional hearing last month, Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta extolled the virtues of compliance assistance, cooperation over confrontation and the Voluntary Protection Program. But he also repeated several times that the agency’s compliance assistance program “has to be balanced by a vigorous enforcement program” and especially when the employer engages in repeated and willful…
Worker found dead, pinned in NYC elevator shaft NEW YORK (AP) — 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…
Five fatalities in Pennsylvania this week and three in Colorado. Work accident kills Mansfield business owner MANSFIELD, PA — A Mansfield business owner was killed Tuesday when he was pinned under a piece of farming machinery. Lane Smith, 57, owner and operator of L. P. Smith Co., was working on farm equipment when a manure spreader…
Press Release Drought Continues When Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta testified last month before the US Senate, he committed to citing employers who have the information about how to make the workplace safe, but don’t do what they need to do to provide a safe workplace. Well, to their credit, OSHA continues to enforce the…
Another week of workers being killed in the workplace by being crushed, dying in falls, killed in traffic accidents, shot, stabbed and electrocuted. My rant this week is that the media often does not print the names of workers killed, pending notification of family, but then loses interest in the case once the family is…