Many businesses are finding themselves in the hot seat as of late as OSHA begins to crack down on safety violations after more and more workers are reported as being injured on the worksite. Most of these injury incidents are caused by workplace safety falling to the wayside or just plain being ignored. In January of 2022, one such incident occurred that ended up costing a worker part of their forearm. This article will take a look into the report shared by OSHA on their website regarding this incident, as well as briefly talk about how a similar problem can be avoided by your own company.

A workplace injury incident in Texas at a manufacturing facility is the subject of this particular report. The US Department of Labor discovered during their investigation that the company in question had neglected to put machine guards or locking devices on a hot laminating machine. These pieces would have kept any workers from making contact with the unsafe parts of the machine. The worker involved had been trying to clear away debris in this laminating machine when their arm got stuck. The injuries that resulted were so severe as to end up in a partial amputation of the forearm, leaving this worker permanently altered and unable to work the same way ever again. As stated by the OSHA area director, "This worker’s life was forever altered because his employer ignored known safety hazards. Industrial machinery is unforgiving and can cause sudden, severe, and disabling injuries or worse when energy control procedures and guards are bypassed or inadequate."

This is not even the first incident resulting in an OSHA inspection and resulting citation for this company. Their location in Mississippi was investigated for an energy control procedure violation in January 2020.

Along with finding that this company neglected to put machine guards and locking devices on their laminating machine, OSHA also found that they did not conduct the inspections of their machinery they should have to ensure safety, properly safeguard energy sources, or have adequate protection to keep workers from falling into dangerous equipment. For this Texas facility’s failings, the company is facing fines of over $227K for one willful violation, one repeat violation, and three serious violations.

Had this company done its due diligence and made an effort to protect their employees and made sure the equipment was safe to be around, they could have avoided these fines and citations.