Perrysburg contractor fined in fatal accident
OSHA demands $12,471
By TYREL LINKHORN | BLADE BUSINESS WRITER
Published on Sept. 24, 2016 | Updated 9:21 a. m.
A Perrysburg-based pipeline contractor has been fined more than $12,000 in connection with a workplace accident this year that left one employee dead.
Jacob Angelos, 29, of Mount Pleasant, Mich., was killed June 3 while working on a pipeline that will eventually deliver natural gas to an 800-megawatt power plant under construction in Oregon. Investigators said Mr. Angelos became pinned against a section of metal pipe by a 43-ton excavator. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Mr. Angelos’ employer, Welded Construction LP, recently was fined $12,471 for failing to provide a safe workplace.
The agency said Welded Construction should have established and enforced safe practices, including ensuring employees running excavation equipment know in advance where other employees are and make sure that the path of equipment work is clear, use spotters to guide the operator, or rope off the swing area of the excavator .
The accident happened in the 3800 block of Starr Avenue. The 22-mile long pipeline loops from Maumee to Perrysburg Township then north to Oregon.
Welded Construction, like all companies that are issued fines, has the option to contest the finding.
According to OSHA records, there have been 23 workplace fatalities so far this year in Ohio, including three in the greater Toledo area.
On Feb. 1, Larry Johnson, 64, was killed when he was crushed between a semi-tractor and trailer outside the Johnson Controls plant in Northwood. Mr. Johnson, an employee of McMullin Transportation, was making a delivery to the factory. OSHA investigated, but no fines were issued.
The very next day, 50-year-old Terry Bodenbender, an electrician at the General Motors foundry in Defiance, died in a fall.
Authorities said Mr. Bodenbender was working on a crane approximately 30 feet above the ground. General Motors was issued a “serious” violation for not ensuring employees used protective equipment and fined $7,000.
OSHA this week also released details of two other workplace violation citations and fines, though neither of those cases involved an injury.
The agency proposed a fine of $24,942 to Impact Employment Solutions Inc., of Toledo, for failing to provide training on how to properly cut off power to equipment in a McComb factory in order to perform maintenance.
Indiana-based LLG Construction LLC was fined $44,095 for repeatedly failing to ensure employees wore safety glasses and were protected from falls when working six or more feet above the ground and other violations. The fines came after inspection of a worksite in Perrysburg.
The company was fined $17,160 earlier this year for violations observed in December at a separate job in Perrysburg.