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OSHA cites Illinois company for 2 worker deaths in June
 


By JO ANN HUSTIS
Illinois Correspondent

CHICAGO, Ill. — A Springfield agricultural products company has a few days to decide on contesting the citation the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) levied this month in a dual suffocation incident on plant property last summer.
OSHA has proposed three fines totaling $266,000 in  the incident at the Pekin Agridyne LLC distributorship, in which two co-workers – Frank Rosebur, 37, and Dean Stone, 29 (identified in a June 2014 Peoria Journal Star article) – were overcome by hydrogen sulfide gas in a railcar, according to the federal agency. Agridyne has 10 days from receipt of the citation to discuss with OSHA the agency’s findings in the incident.
“Agridyne has opportunity to come in … and see if they can agree on a settlement agreement,” OSHA spokeswoman Rhonda Burke of the Chicago federal office noted. “The fines could be reduced under a permanent agreement, or (Agridyne) can say they’ve decided to contest the citations. This can take place over a couple of weeks.
“(Agridyne) can come in initially and come to agreement, but they can still contest the citations,” Burke said Jan. 15. “By next week, we should know if they were able to come to agreement they are contesting.”
OSHA noted Thursday in a news release one worker climbed inside the railcar to clean out corn residue and was overcome by dangerous hydrogen sulfide gas. A tank inspector attempted to rescue his co-worker, but succumbed to the gas exposure instead. “Neither worker made it out of the car alive,” OSHA stated.
OSHA’s investigation has resulted in three willful and eight serious safety violations against Agridyne, many of which required confined space safety regulations. The agency found neither worker was equipped with an emergency retrieval system upon entering the railcar. The primary cause of the two deaths was closed space asphyxiation and hydrogen sulfide intoxication, a byproduct of residual organic waste in the tank, according to OSHA. “As a result, the liquid animal feed manufacturer has been placed in OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program,” the release stated.
Based in Springfield, Agridyne is a subsidiary of Timberlake Sales, Inc. Agridyne produces liquid feed from corn and soybean byproducts for beef and dairy cattle, sheep, goats, bison and deer. Its product is distributed in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico.
OSHA’s review decision process is rather lengthy, Burke noted, and includes four grades, or categories, of violations. The first is “Other Than Serious” and second is “Serious,” both which speak for themselves. The third grade is “Willful,” which means something committed intentionally, knowingly or with disregard for the laws that require it. The fourth is “Repeat,” which means the safety violation still exists.
“The two workers went into what we call a confined space,” Burke explained. “The tanker was not very big, obviously. The atmosphere was not tested beforehand to make sure there were no gasses or other things present, and they failed to do that. So, that is why it was considered Willful, because they should have known they were required to make sure of the safety to work in that space.”
Thomas Bielema, OSHA area director in Peoria, stated in part that the June 24 tragedy was “a terrible incident that was completely preventable.”
OSHA had up to six months from the day the incident occurred to issue Agridyne the citation. “But certainly from the initial date of the incident, the company has known the type of things being looked at (by OSHA), and probably had a fairly good idea of what they would be cited for, based on the interviews that were conducted,” Burke added.
“OSHA’s goal is to improve the safety. The fines are on the equivalent of speeding tickets, in a way. It’s a way of saying you’ve got to make changes. It’s really not about the penalty – it’s about changing the behavior.”
A spokesman at the Agridyne distributorship in Pekin said the owners were out of town and not available for comment. He said the owners would return later this week.
1/22/2015