Posted on January 06, 2020 by
Lauren Scott
On December 4, OSHA fined a railcar company $551,226 due to confined space safety violations that led to the death of an employee in Pittston, Pennsylvania.
The employee was performing maintenance on a railcar containing crude oil sludge in May 2019 when he asphyxiated. As a result, OSHA cited the company for
four willful and three serious violations for failing to protect employees from the hazards of entering permit-required confined spaces and inadequate respiratory protection procedures.
OSHA also placed the company in its
Severe Violator Enforcement Program, reserved for employers who demonstrate indifference to their OSH Act obligations by “willful, repeated, or failure-to-abate violations.”
What is OSHA's Severe Violator Enforcement Program?
To be considered for the Severe Violator Enforcement Program, an inspection must meet one or more of the following criteria:
- A fatality/catastrophe inspection in which OSHA finds one or more willful or repeated violations or failure-to-abate notices based on a serious violation related to a death of an employee or three or more hospitalizations.
- An inspection in which OSHA finds two or more willful or repeated violations or failure-to-abate notices (or any combination of these violations/notices), based on high gravity serious violations related to a High-Emphasis Hazard. (High-Emphasis Hazards refers to only certain high-gravity serious violations of specific standards covered under falls or the National Emphasis Programs regardless of the type of inspection being conducted).
- An inspection in which OSHA finds three or more willful or repeated violations or failure-to-abate notices (or any combination of these violations/notices), based on high gravity serious violations related to hazards due to the potential release of a highly hazardous chemical, as defined in the PSM standard.
- Any egregious enforcement action (per-instance citation).
The railcar servicer was given 15 business days to comply or contest the findings before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
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