While government agencies are busy as ever trying to enforce safety standards and charging fines to people who’re indifferent to these regulations, the danger of workplace safety is still there. This particular event concerns a paint manufacturer, the Yenkin-Majestic Paint Corp., who was cited for failures in work safety after a workplace explosion resulted in one death and the injuries of eight other workers. The company is now faced with $709K in fines due to their gross negligence in ensuring worker safety which led to disastrous consequences.

There was a fiery explosion in which a press operator lost his life, and eight employees had to be rushed to the hospital. The incident was preventable; the management had modified an unsafe kettle reactor vessel to make it operational, but without following the proper protocol. The kettle exploded when operated, and the ignition caused a fire, which then led to one death and eight hospitalizations. Following this, an OSHA investigation revealed that the company was willfully and knowingly negligent towards the safety of its workers.

The company was cited for failures in work safety and no less than 33 violations of work safety protocols for failing to ensure employee safety and being unable to ensure an adequate emergency response protocol. Plus, there was no personal safety equipment for the workers or any effective worker safety training. The paint company could have followed through with good industry practices and removed the kettle instead of using it despite safety flaws; doing so would’ve prevented the incident.

Instances like this are not rare, and workers often pay the price for the negligence of their supervisors, but you should not let such a violation slide. In case of a workplace safety violation that affects you, call our Ohio workers compensation lawyers for legal representation.

Source: https://www.osha.gov/news/newsreleases/region5/10072021