OSHA Finds Apprentice Worker’s Death Tied to Electrical Hazard
- An Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation found that the May 12 death of Justin Davis, 28, an apprentice electrician at the Port Bienville Industrial Park in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, was related to a severe electrical hazard, raising doubts about earlier county accounts that he died after falling from scaffolding.
- OSHA found Doleac Electrical Company liable, saying an employee worked on a deenergized circuit without a lock-out/tag-out procedures or effective means of isolating from potentially hazardous electrical energy.
- OSHA initially fined Doleac $11,585 for a serious violation on July 28, below the $16,550 maximum for a serious violation. After Doleac contested the citation in mid-August, OSHA reclassified it as “other than serious” in a formal settlement. OSHA still assigned the violation a gravity rating of 10, the highest on its penalty scale, which reflects high severity and a greater probability of death or extremely serious injury.
- A separate OSHA investigation into Calgon Carbon Corporation, which operated the worksite, ended in July with no citations or penalties, the company confirmed. Further details of Davis’s death are not expected in OSHA’s fatality records until later this year, and OSHA did not answer questions or a request to review the investigative file.
DOT Bridge Inspector Killed by Semi Truck in Work Zone
- Jennifer Donley, 45, of Lancaster, Ohio, an Ohio Department of Transportation bridge inspector, was killed Nov. 9 when a semi truck hit her in an active construction zone on Interstate 70 in Zanesville.
- Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers responded around 8 a.m. to the crash. A preliminary investigation found a 2027 Freightliner Cascadia, driven by a 54-year-old from Indianapolis, was traveling west on I-70 when it hit Donley. She died at the scene.
- Donley was working on the I-70 Reconstruction Project and was hired as a bridge inspector in 2022, ODOT said.
- The crash remains under investigation.
Steel Plant Explosion Kills 17 Workers, Injures 12
- A Nov. 9 explosion and fire at the Habas steel plant in Aliaga, Turkey killed 17 workers and injured 12, Turkish authorities said. The health minister raised the death toll from 16 after one of the critically injured workers died.
- The governor’s office said the blast happened around noon when an overhead crane toppled into a furnace during the casting of liquid steel. The production line was in a shift change, with about 200 workers present instead of the expected 300, the governor said.
- Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said four public prosecutors had been assigned to the case.
- Health and Safety Labor Watch, an independent Turkish non-governmental organization, reported 226 workplace deaths across Turkey in September.