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June 11, 2008

OSHA criticizes and fines Lincoln factory

PROVIDENCE -- The federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration today cited a Lincoln manufacturing company for not having adequate guarding to prevent a Guatemalan immigrant from getting pinned in a machine last December, and for failing to properly train the worker to use that machine.

The worker, Leonardo Cos Elias, lost his leg, buttock and half of one hip after the accident at Packaging Concepts Ltd. He is now confined to a wheelchair at a Massachusetts rehabilitation hospital.

OSHA has recommended a total of $21,000 for three serious citations. OSHA defines a serious violation as one in which there is “substantial probability that death or serious harm could result,” and that the employer knew, or should have known, of the hazard.

OSHA also issued a “letter of significance” to the company that notes there was no emergency stop device installed on the routing machine Cos was using, and that routing machines “were being utilized without formalized training and documentation.”

OSHA has asked that the company develop a training manual for operation of the computer-numerically controlled routing machines, and to train its employees on the procedures set out in that manual.

-- Journal staff writer Karen Lee Ziner

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 5:28 PM | Permalink

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