A US glass container plant has instituted several Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)-ordered protective measures in response to an industrial accident that killed a worker there on 3…
A US glass container plant has instituted several Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)-ordered protective measures in response to an industrial accident that killed a worker there on 3 May, according to a report released by the US Department of Labor. Maria E. Constancio, 35, died at the Ball-Foster Glass Container plant when her clothes were caught in assembly line machinery, authorities said. The Sapulpa woman died of asphyxiation by chest compression, a spokesman for the state medical examiner said. The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspected the plant immediately after the accident and issued four “serious” violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, the report says. Ball-Foster did not contest the violations and paid US$ 10,000 in fines, OSHA spokeswoman Gladys Ray said. The Department of Labor report stated that palletizer machine operators “were performing duties of unjamming machines without adequate procedures for controlling hazardous energy” and that Ball-Foster employees failed to “turn off energy at the disconnect source to prevent the hazard of being caught in the machine during automatic restart.” Machine operators who unjammed machines were not provided with devices or hardware for securing energy sources, the report said. Furthermore, lockout procedures for the palletizers and other machines were not reviewed by company authorities, documents showed.