Wisconsin company hit with $1.8 million fine for 'egregious' blast that killed five

[riversedge]

Source: madison.com



DIDION MILLING | OSHA FINE LARGEST IN WISCONSIN

STEVEN VERBURG [email protected] 24 min ago


Workplace safety inspectors on Friday announced a $1.8 million fine for what they called a preventable explosion on May 31 that destroyed a corn processing plant, killed five workers and injured 12 others, including a 21-year-old employee who suffered a double leg amputation after being crushed by a rail car.

The penalty for the Didion Milling Inc. plant about 40 miles north of Madison is the largest fine to emerge from a single investigation in Wisconsin, officials of the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration said.
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The company issued a statement saying it disagreed with the severity of the penalties and was working with lawyers on a response.

OSHA's five-month investigation found that Didion failed to control highly-combustible grain dust that leaked from enclosures and accumulated throughout the plant, and the company didn't maintain equipment to prevent heat or sparks that can ignite the dust.

“Didion Milling could have prevented this tragedy if it had addressed hazards that are well-known in this industry,” said OSHA's Chicago-based regional administrator, Ken Nishiyama Atha. “Instead, their disregard for the law led to an explosion that claimed the lives of workers, and heartbreak for their families and the community.”......................................

Read more: http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/wisconsin-company-hit-with-million-fine-for-egregious-blast-that/article_5f6d4f09-fe33-5d73-89b6-9e6244d4277e.html

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This company has lots of previous violations and fines. Glad to see the Fed Gov investigate this company.


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http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/wisconsin-company-hit-with-million-fine-for-egregious-blast-that/article_5f6d4f09-fe33-5d73-89b6-9e6244d4277e.html





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[jmowreader]

1. Under the Trump regime, they wouldn't even have been looked at

http://www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com/articles/15985-updated-agenda-reflects-trump-administration-focus-on-de-regulation

Among the standards that have been repealed under General Secretary Trump are ones on combustible dust.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. Ummmm, not quite.

Trump does not have the power to "repeal" a standard.

What the article says is that a proposed new rule for Combustible Dust has been removed from the regulatory agenda. The regulatory agenda lists OSHA's plans for updating standards. Existing standards regarding combustible dust are in place now:

Combustible Dust: An Explosion Hazard -- OSHA Standards

The progress, now halted, of the proposed new rule on combustible dust can be followed here:

Combustible Dust: An Explosion Hazard -- OSHA Rulemaking

Here's OSHA's news release on the Didion Milling citations:

U.S. Department of Labor Proposes Over $1.8 Million in Fines Against a Wisconsin Corn Milling Facility After Fatal Grain Dust Explosion

Here's the Citation and Notification of Penalty:

Citation and Notification of Penalty, Didion Milling, Inc.

The willful violations cited various paragraphs of 1910.272:

OSHA Standard Number 1910.272, Grain handling facilities

[Nac Mac Feegle]

2. One of the lesser-known hazards of the agricultural industry

Google "Grain Dust Explosions" for some enlightenment.

Just think: Very fine particles of very flammable material suspended in air.

One spark, friction between particles, or even spontaneous combustion, and things get REALLY "interesting" REALLY fast.

More than a few elevators and mills across the Midwest have spontaneously disassembled at a high rate of speed, over the years.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. "a food pantry has been busy", "family members of the dead and injured, continue to suffer"

Is the company being forced to pay for all that too? Is this going to be paid by the company's insurance company, or will the negligent company (directors, senior employees of which get more than $1.8m a year between them, no doubt) have to pay for their reckless disregard of safety?

[bluestarone]

4. yea right ther Gov gets 1.8 million and

the families get shit something wrong in this system huh?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. The $1.8 million is for violations of the rules. The figure is subject

to negotiation.

Regardless of how the OSHA fines turn out, the families still have the right to sue for damages:

A tort, in common law jurisdictions, is a civil wrong that causes someone else to suffer loss or harm resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act.

[bluestarone]

7. not if

workers comp!!!!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

8. Thanks for the important disclaimer. I don't know how that works from state to state.

Workers' compensation is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue their employer for the tort of negligence. The trade-off between assured, limited coverage and lack of recourse outside the worker compensation system is known as "the compensation bargain". One of the problems that the compensation bargain solved is the problem of employers becoming insolvent as a result of high damage awards. The system of collective liability was created to prevent that, and thus to ensure security of compensation to the workers. Individual immunity is the necessary corollary to collective liability.
....

State workers' compensation laws

{snip}

[bluestarone]

9. yea it's

a joke them bastards can do anything totally against the workers now adays