Posted on 11/15/2022 10:42:58 AM PST by Red Badger
A man was killed when he fell into a vat of molten iron at his job site.
The worker was reportedly moving a sample of iron from a furnace when he fell into a melting pot of molten iron that was heated to more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The 39-year-old was "immediately incinerated," according to a press release by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It was just his ninth day on the job.
OSHA sent investigators to the Mapleton, Illinois foundry on June 2 after the incident. Investigators found that the facility was lacking legally required guardrails and restraint systems to protect workers from falling into dangerous equipment.
The release also said the company "routinely exposed employees to unprotected fall hazards as they worked within four feet of deep ceramic containers of super-heated molten iron."
OSHA cited and fined Caterpillar $145,027.
"Caterpillar's failure to meet its legal responsibilities to ensure the safety and health of workers leaves this worker's family, friends and co-workers to grieve needlessly," said OSHA Area Director Christine Zortman in Peoria. "We implore employers to review the agency specific regulations to protect workers from falls into equipment in industrial settings."
Caterpillar has 15 business days from receipt of the citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA's area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
And then we wonder why so many industrial plants move overseas.
Wonder if they dumped the iron on the slag heap or reused it as suddenly created high carbon steel.
9th day on the job.. probably on his cell phone.
Those fall prevention devices suck. They make you more likely to have an accident. See my previous post in this thread.
When I was young and dumb I worked at a warehouse where I and another guy were elevated about 20 feet off a concrete floor by a forklift while standing on a pallet in order to wrestle 2 200lb containers off the racks.
The supervisor below us was in crutches with stainless steel pins sticking out of the tibia and fibula on his left leg from doing the same thing a couple of weeks before.
Lack of required guard rails is not a rookie mistake; it’s Caterpillar’s total disregard for safety.
File this under,
“Things that make business’s move to China”.
Why we need a tariif.
Now that OSHA found them lacking, $145k is going to be the least of their financial hits on this.
I really like Mike Rowe’s “Safety Third” rule.
The company is (and should be imho) primarily concerned with making a profit and timeliness. Safety is third (or fourth) - and so it is the worker that must be most concerned with safety.
Of course that is sometimes difficult to get across to a 20-something “it won’t happen to me” guy. And of course we didn’t even think of the consequences in some cases.
Out on the oil rig we used diesel, soap and water to clean the equipment. Some of the guys, me included, would stand there with our oily overalls and spray ourselves down at the end of the shift with it!
So essentially, he got himself fired on his 9th day on the job
ISWYDT......................
Would just about cover a down payment on a large piece of construction equipment.
First thing that came to mind.
Dear God, I hope you’re right.
We were smart enough not to wash our faces with it, although I did get a mouthful of leaded gas once siphoning a gas tank.
The good old days! /s
The states have expressly constitutionally authorized the unconstitutionaly big federal governent the specific power to police safety only in the context of rebellion or invasion, not INTRAstate occupational safety.
This is evidenced by the fact that the only appearance of safety in Congress's constitutional Article 1, Section 8-limited powers limits Congress's power to policing safety to cases of insurrection and rebellion.
"Article I, Section 9, Clause 2: The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it [emphasis added]."
"From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added]." —United States v. Butler, 1936.
A better title for the refernced article is this imo.
"The non-elected bureaucrats running constitutionally undefined OSHA stole $145k from Caterpillar after worker 'immediately incinerated' by molten iron"
Insights welcome.
I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather.
Not screaming in terror like his passengers.🤭
I’m just surprised that it took 71 posts for this to be posted.
Maybe it should.
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