"We implore employers to review the agency specific regulations to protect workers from falls into equipment in industrial settings."Ĭaterpillar Inc.
"Caterpillar's failure to meet its legal responsibilities to ensure the safety and health of workers leaves this worker's family, friends and co-workers to grieve needlessly," said OSHA Area Director Christine Zortman in Peoria. for one willful violation and proposed fines of $145,027. "Producing more than 150,000 tons each year, Caterpillar's foundry is one of the nation's largest and they should be acutely aware of industry regulations to protect workers using smelters and other dangerous equipment."įederal safety regulations require employers to install guardrails and restraint systems, or to cover or otherwise eliminate the hazard to protect workers from falls into dangerous equipment. "A worker's life could have been spared if Caterpillar had made sure required safety protections were in place, a fact that only adds to this tragedy," said OSHA Regional Administrator Bill Donovan in Chicago. The deceased worker, a melting specialist, was removing a sample of iron from a furnace when they fell into the melting pot. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined the foundry routinely exposed employees to unprotected fall hazards as they worked within four feet of deep ceramic containers of super-heated molten iron. A federal investigation determined that, if required safety guards or fall protection had been installed, the 39-year-old employee's ninth day on the job might not have been their last.Ĭaterpillar of Irving, Texas – one of the world's largest manufacturers of industrial vehicles and equipment – operates the foundry, which produces cast iron engine components. MAPLETON, IL ‒ On June 2, 2022, a 39-year-old employee of a Mapleton foundry fell and was immediately incinerated in an 11-foot-deep pot of molten iron heated to more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Just 9 days on the job, 39-year-old employee suffers fatal burns
Into molten iron finds Caterpillar failed to install required fall protection NovemFederal workplace safety investigation of Mapleton foundry worker's fatal fall
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