Local Debate over worker killed

STL · #1 10-10-2009, 07:56 PM

So here is the story of what took place

Quote:

SPRINGFIELD -- An industrial worker died after an accident at
AC Buckhorn plastics plant, 2727 N. Partnership Boulevard. Police say Tobby Hall was inside an industrial press at around 10 p.m. Wednesday. Somehow it started up and crushed him inside. The 31-year-old man had been employed at AC Buckhorn since 2006.

Springfield Police are investigating whether proper machinery procedures had been followed. "Lock Outs" are installed when workers have to enter machinery to make sure the equipment doesn't start on accident.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has visited AC Buckhorn twice this year. In February, the plant was cited and fined a small amount for five violations. In March, AC Buckhorn was fined $3,375 for four violations.

So now former employees and current employees are speaking out saying how that company was all about production and safety was far from important.

I truly fill bad for the person who lost their life and for his family that is now with out a husband and father.

The thing that really makes me mad is that this guy repeatedly entered the machine to change out these nozzles for a new product run.

Come to find out the company doesn't like to shut the machine down due to shut down time and start up time for the machine. So instead they enter the machine change out the nozzles and just put a tool box in between the doors to prevent them from closing.

On the discussion board for the news channel this is on I called the people claiming to be employees cowards for not reporting safety concerns. They all replied back saying they would be fired for reporting anything to OSHA

What are some of your thoughts on it?

If I was sitting on a jury at some trial for this because the family was wanting money from the company for his death I would only reward less than half because I fill the worker and company are at fault.

Worker for not reporting the issue and entering the machine anyway
Company for ignoring the safety rules for machine lock out tag out

greyghost · #2 10-10-2009, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by STL

If I was sitting on a jury at some trial for this because the family was wanting money from the company for his death I would only reward less than half because I fill the worker and company are at fault.

Worker for not reporting the issue and entering the machine anyway
Company for ignoring the safety rules for machine lock out tag out

i agree with you on this one stl..

RangerNDog · #3 10-10-2009, 08:12 PM

I agree too.

DannyG · #4 10-10-2009, 08:15 PM

Dido, There is no excuse for this kind of tragedy.

FireRanger · #5 10-10-2009, 08:16 PM

Unfortunately safety at industrial facilities is usually one extreme or the other. Either place is an OSHA poster-child or a total disaster.

As far as who to blame, employee or employer, the blame in a case like that is way more than 50% employer. The employer is responsible for promoting and enforcing a safe and compliant workplace. An employer that actively discourages and disallows safety and compliance is entirely at fault for the accidents that result from it. The employees are at their mercy.

STL · #6 10-10-2009, 08:25 PM

I agree about poster child or not

We are what you would call a poster child at my work.

Safety out ways anything. Safety director has pissed the production manager off many times by shutting down machines for unsafe things. But in the end a little production down time resulted in everyone going home that day

We are VPP certified
We have a annual audit coming up in Nov. I would imagine at some places it is a last minute scramble to fix things. My work not so much everything is pretty well right. Ya some things need attention like aisle lines and other little things

All the people from that company were saying managment hated to lose production but in the end that day and the next day they lost production due to not being open for them to investigate.

greyghost · #7 10-10-2009, 08:30 PM

can you say open under new management?

surfer03133 · #8 10-10-2009, 08:39 PM

i think if the workers knew that it was that unsafe working there and only now come out and claim that after someone has died, its partially there fault for not speaking out sooner. of course employers are going to try to get around safety standards and such to reduce costs, thats inevitable, what keeps them from doing it to a point thats dangerous is when employees let people know whats going on. so i do think blame should be 50/50. just my 2 cents

dixie_boysles · #9 10-10-2009, 08:53 PM

I'm with u STL! I work at a granite quarry and safety is our number 1 concern! Heck we have a safety refresher course EVERY january. We are regulated my not only OSHA but also MSHA(Mine Safety and Health Admin) and MSHA is twice as strict as OSHA. If I were that employee, I would never enter that machine without locking/tagging it out! I feel bad that he died, but it was partially his fault. Now he lost his life to it! And yes the other people are cowards for not reporting company---they could do it randomly and not give any name! I'm sure OSHA would have loved to have heard about the company's failure to follow safety guidelines. OSHA is there for a reason!

02'4.04x4 · #10 10-10-2009, 09:54 PM

Hmm, did a short stint as a lead electrician at Tyson Foods and well I got injured due to years of substandard work and jerryrigged wiring with out of date prints and the whole nine yards. I locked out a chiller assembly and began to work on a bearing issue when all of a sudden it kicked on. The lock-out was still in place, The plant had an old electrical room that was said to be destroyed and moved to the new and current location. Well the room had been destroyed down to a closet. . . and no one knew what anything left there did. It had to do with a squabble between the maintenance director and the old lead electrician. The company was undercutting him and having unqualified guys wiring phase 2 and 3 motor assemblies, with whatever they could find to save money. Turned out that the electrical closet was in the middle of being setup as an emerency generator driven circuit. Unfortuneately the jerry rigged crap included thousands of feet of green wire run throughout the boxes. They wired everything including 220v and 440v with green wire. . . . . Apparently it was decided that it would not be cost effective to correct the mishap so they basically ignored it and acted like it did not exist. I had my middle finger snapped backwards luckily it did not break anything but it did strain some ligaments. Today it is fine. But no one and I mean no one wanted to hear a hing about the dangers there and anyone to date who even mentions it doesn't work there the next day. Including IOSHA, not sure who knew who but I am used to IOSHA shutting down operations at the drop of a hat. But apparently someone was on the take there, it costs roughly $200k every minute the line is down. No one wants to be the one. . . . .

If the worker did what he was supposed to do according to the safety statutes then his family is entitled to every red cent they get.
If he did not due to plant manager threats then they deserve every red cent, even if the worker did not know to lock out the equipment it is the plant safety managers and everyone elses job to ensure this cannot happen, it's called Safety Standards" if it does happen then they are liable. Period. . . . . M2C

blueovelboy · #11 10-10-2009, 10:05 PM

look he only did what he was taught and shown to do you think he was the first to do that same thing? he was just the lucky bastard to get caught and now every one is pointing there fingers at each other when thay should have did some thing sooner

02'4.04x4 · #12 10-11-2009, 09:01 PM

Too true and there's alot of people responsible for him not to be able to do that.