{"id":3651,"date":"2018-07-31T17:05:26","date_gmt":"2018-07-31T21:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/?p=3651"},"modified":"2018-07-31T17:08:18","modified_gmt":"2018-07-31T21:08:18","slug":"osha-cites-two-multiple-death-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/2018\/07\/31\/osha-cites-two-multiple-death-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"OSHA Cites Two Multiple Death Cases Very Differently"},"content":{"rendered":"

OSHA has issued citations in two multiple fatality cases, one with a appropriately large penalty (for OSHA) and one not so much. What’s going on?<\/p>\n

Gavilon Grain<\/h2>\n

\"OSHA\u00a0Gavilon Grain LLC faces a half million dollar penalty for the suffocation deaths of two men,\u00a0Joshua Rasbold, 28, and Marcus Tice, 32, who died\u00a0after they were buried under 20 to 25 feet of grain<\/a>\u00a0on Jan. 2 at Gavilon\u2019s grain elevator near Wichita, Kansas.\u00a0 Gavilon, formerly known as DeBruce Grain, “has\u00a0faced 24 cases<\/a>\u00a0of safety and health violations by federal regulators over the past seven years.”<\/p>\n

According to OSHA’s Press Release<\/a>,<\/p>\n

“OSHA cited Gavilon Grain LLC for failing to provide employees with lifelines and fall protection; lockout equipment; provide rescue equipment; and allowing employees to enter a bin in which bridged and\/or hung-up grain was present.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving grain acts like quick sand, and can bury a worker in seconds,\u201d said OSHA Regional Administrator Kimberly Stille. \u201cThis tragedy could have been prevented if the employer had provided workers with proper safety equipment, and followed required safety procedures to protect workers from grain bin hazards.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0$507,374 citation<\/a>, which included four willful, one repeat and two serious citation also resulted in Gavilon being put on OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program.<\/p>\n

The penalty was issued by OSHA Region 7 which I criticized a couple of weeks ago<\/a> for issuing a rather mealy-mouthed press release following a spike in fatalities in the region. Happy to see they’re still serious about significant enforcement actions for employers who kill.<\/p>\n

Patterson-UTI Drilling<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"patterson\"Meanwhile, down the road in Oklahoma, OSHA has issued much smaller penalties for a higher number of fatalities involving a company with a problematic history.<\/p>\n

Today, OSHA issued citations with penalties totaling\u00a0$118,643 against three companies — Patterson-UTI Drilling,\u00a0Crescent Consulting LLC, and Skyline Directional Drilling LLC — in response to the deaths of five workers who were killed<\/a> in an gas well explosion last January.\u00a0Matt Smith,\u00a0Parker Waldridge,\u00a0Roger Cunningham,\u00a0Josh Ray\u00a0and\u00a0Cody Risk died in the explosion.<\/p>\n

Three of the five dead workers were employees of Patterson-UTI, a large oil and gas drilling company, an OSHA \u201cfrequent flyer\u201d which has received\u00a0more than $900,000 in OSHA penalties over the last decade for repeated safety violations.<\/p>\n

The OSHA Press Release<\/a> stated that the companies were cited for<\/p>\n

failing to maintain proper controls while drilling a well, inspect slow descent devices, and implement emergency response plans. OSHA cited all three companies for failing to ensure that heat lamps in use were approved for hazardous locations. The three companies face penalties totaling $118,643, the maximum allowed for violation of the OSHA standards.<\/p>\n

OSHA issued 7 serious citations against Patterson for a total of $73,909, four serious citations against Crescent for $34,923 and one serious citation against Skyline for $8,148.<\/p>\n

Why So Low?<\/h2>\n

Why were the fines for the 5 deaths in the gas well explosion only $118,000 while the penalty for two grain engulfment deaths were over 4 times that much?\u00a0 We don’t really know at this point, but there are a few things to consider about how OSHA is able — and not able — to issue high penalties:<\/p>\n