{"id":2363,"date":"2017-11-28T14:11:21","date_gmt":"2017-11-28T19:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/?p=2363"},"modified":"2017-11-29T00:52:27","modified_gmt":"2017-11-29T05:52:27","slug":"fedex-fatalities-mugno-explaining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/2017\/11\/28\/fedex-fatalities-mugno-explaining\/","title":{"rendered":"FedEx Fatalities: Mugno Has Some Explaining To do"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FedEx
Ellen Gladney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Scott Mugno, nominated by President Trump to be the next head of OSHA<\/a> has a problem. Several problems actually.<\/p>\n

Last Thursday morning, Thanksgiving Day,\u00a0 at 12:30 am, the body of Ellen Gladney was found\u00a0under a motorized mobile conveyor belt system<\/a> at the FedEx Memphis hub.\u00a0 Gladney, a FedEx “Team Leader” was described by friends as a “grandmother and full of life. She had a big smile and loved helping others.”<\/p>\n

Gladney’s death was not only a terrible tragedy in itself, but the latest of three deaths<\/a> of FedEx workers at the company’s Memphis hub over the past three and a half years.\u00a0In 2015, 39-year-old Christopher Higginbottom, age 39 and father of twin boys,\u00a0 was crushed by a “tug”\u00a0<\/a>and in 2014, 19-year-old Chandler Warren was crushed by a cargo lift<\/a>. The Memphis FedEx\u00a0World Hub covers more than 800 acres at Memphis International Airport. It has 42 miles of conveyor belts and is a key nerve center in the company’s package shipping operations.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, last month\u00a0Michael Merton, 60, of Lubbock, Texas, was killed at a FedEx facility at Lubbock Preston Smith Airport.\u00a0 Merton’s daughters have filed a wrongful death suit against the company, alleging gross negligence<\/a> by failing to train its employees in proper safety procedures and providing a safe work environment. The daughters are frustrated because no one has told them how their father was killed.\u00a0Their attorney explained that they filed the lawsuit \u201cin order to do the discovery that we need to find out exactly what happened and how it happened and why it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also in Tennessee,\u00a0 a FedEx driver, 59-year-old Dorothy Brooker, was killed when a train hit her truck<\/a> at a crossing that\u00a0 did not have an arm or lights to warn of an approaching train. And in October 2016, a FedEx employee in Missouri was trapped in a conveyor belt<\/a> and received\u00a0“severe to moderate injuries” to his arm.<\/p>\n

While any workplace death is a tragedy, three deaths in as many years at one site may indicate a serious problem with the company’s safety system.\u00a0 And that means a serious problem for the\u00a0Vice President for Safety, Sustainability and Vehicle Maintenance at FedEx Ground in Pittsburgh and former Managing Director for FedEx Express Corporate Safety, Health and Fire Protection in Memphis — Scott Mugno.<\/p>\n

The Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration (TOSHA) is heading up the investigation into Gladney’s death.\u00a0Tennessee is one of 21 OSHA state plan states that cover safety and health for private (and public) sector workers.\u00a0TOSHA proposed to fine FedEx $4,000 in connection with the death of Higginbottom<\/a>, but FedEx has appealed that case. FedEx received a $5200 citation<\/a> for Warren’s death, which was later reduced to $4000. Federal\u00a0OSHA issued<\/a> a\u00a0$38,025 citation for violation of the lockout-tagout<\/a> and machine guarding<\/a> standards related to the Missouri conveyor belt incident above.\u00a0 FedEx is also contesting this citation.<\/p>\n

Mugno has led FedEx-sponsored champion drivers at the\u00a0National Truck Driving Championships (NTDC)\u00a0and at the company\u2019s\u00a0Chairman\u2019s Challenge Competition and Celebration where\u00a0drivers who go accident free for a year to qualify to compete in the truck driving championships.\u00a0 He has plenty to say about driver safety<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Being accident-free is very possible and it has advantages beyond becoming a member of Team FedEx.\u00a0The biggest?\u00a0Keeping the promise.\u00a0The promise the driver made when they said \u201cI\u2019ll see you when I get home tonight,\u201d or \u201cI\u2019ll meet you at your soccer game,\u201d or \u201cWe\u2019re going to have a great weekend this weekend, can\u2019t wait.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a safety professional, part of my job is dealing with the aftermath of when that promise isn\u2019t kept.<\/p>\n

There are a number of questions that Senators may want to ask Mugno at his hearing next week<\/a> about these fatalities and FedEx’s safety program when a confirmation hearing is held. For example<\/p>\n