Worker Suffocates
A 49-year-old worker suffocated inside of a chemical tank at the Port of New Orleans. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) said the Illinois company sent three workers into a tank in October 2015 without first testing the air quality or providing them lifelines. As a result, One of the workers was killed and the others were hospitalized.
Penalties
OSHA proposed $226,000 in fines against the company in connection with nine safety violations. Two of the nine proposed violations were classified as "willful," which is the most serious category. This category is reserved for situations where an employer knows of an unsafe condition or practice, but does nothing about it.
Before the worker's death, OSHA cited the company for almost 30 violations. Many of those violations were related to failure to take proper precautions when sending workers into confined spaces filled with dangerous chemicals.