Monthly Archives: February 2011

Massey Safety Chief Indicted In Mine Disaster Probe

February 28, 2011 By in EHS Employee Indictment, Mine Safety, News Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Federal agents arrested a Massey Energy chief of security Monday on charges of lying to the FBI and obstructing the criminal investigation into last year’s deadly mine disaster in West Virginia.

Hughie Elbert Stover, 60, of Clear Fork, W.Va., was indicted on Feb. 25. The indictment is the first in the mine disaster investigation and was unsealed after Stover’s arrest Monday.

An ambulance arrives on the scene on April 10, 2010, after an explosion at Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia. Twenty-nine workers died in the blast. 

Bob Bird/AP – An ambulance arrives on the scene on April 10, 2010, after an explosion at Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia. Twenty-nine workers died in the blast.

 

Stover supervised security at several Massey Energy coal mines, including the Upper Big Branch mine, where 29 mineworkers died in a massive explosion in April 2010.

The indictment accuses Stover of lying to federal agents about an apparent systematic effort to deceive federal mine safety inspectors.

“Stover had himself directed and trained security guards at … Upper Big Branch Mine to give advance notice” of unannounced federal inspections, the indictment says.

Stover and his guards used a special radio frequency to warn miners underground when inspectors arrived at the mine. That gave the miners the chance to mask or fix serious safety problems and avoid citations, fines and closure orders.

As NPR has reported, former Massey miners and federal mine inspectors have described this inspection dodge before.

Stover told federal agents, the indictment says, that Massey had “a practice and policy dating back to at least 1999 that forbade security guards at the Upper Big Branch mine from giving advance notice of an inspection.” That was a firing offense, Stover claimed.

But the indictment says those statements were “false, fictitious and fraudulent.”

Stover is also accused of directing the disposal of thousands of pages of security-related documents in a company trash compactor at the Upper Big Branch Mine “with the intent to impede, obstruct, and influence” the mine disaster investigation.

This conduct “threatens our effort to find out what happened at Upper Big Branch,” said U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin in a prepared statement. “This inquiry is simply too important to tolerate any attempt to hinder it.”

The alleged actions by Stover also trouble Davitt McAteer, who was appointed by former West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin to conduct an independent investigation of the disaster’s cause.

McAteer asks, “Were laws violated? Were regulations disregarded? And were shortcuts taken” before the explosion?

“I think this indictment suggests perhaps they were,” McAteer adds.

Massey Energy issued a statement that did not respond to the inspection deception allegation. But Shane Harvey, the company’s vice president and general counsel, said Massey “takes this matter very seriously and is committed to cooperating with the U.S. attorney’s office.”

Harvey claimed that Massey “notified the U.S. attorney’s office within hours of learning that documents had been disposed of and took immediate steps to recover documents and turn them over to the U.S. attorney’s office.”

Melvin Smith, a spokesman for Goodwin, declined to comment on Harvey’s claim. But Smith did refer to this statement in the indictment: “These documents were later recovered after the federal government inquired about their existence in the course of its investigation …”

The indictment says the documents were recovered.

NPR’s attempts to reach Stover for comment were unsuccessful. His attorney, former U.S. Attorney William Wilmoth, tells NPR he has “no comment this early in the case.”

Stover was released on bail, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Charleston. An arraignment is scheduled for March 15.

A spokeswoman for the Mine Safety and Health Administration declined to comment.

Copy of Indictment: http://media.npr.org/documents/2011/feb/massey-stover-indictment.pdf

OSHA Orders Company to Rehire Whistleblower, Pay $111,000 in Back wages Plus Interest

February 28, 2011 By in Jack Benton

OSHA has ordered United Auto Delivery and Recovery/Memphis Auto Auction to reinstate a former truck driver who was fired in violation of the whistleblower provisions of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act for repeatedly complaining to a supervisor about mechanical problems with a truck.

OSHA is ordering the company to pay the worker more than $111,000 as compensation for back wages plus interest, compensatory damages, and punitive damages. The company is also required to delete any adverse references related to the discharge from the employee’s personnel file and post a fact sheet informing employees of their rights.

“Employees have the legal right to report unsafe driving situations, not only for their own safety, but also to protect the public from unsafe trucks on the roads,” said Cindy Coe, OSHA’s regional administrator in Atlanta. “OSHA will not allow trucking companies to retaliate against drivers who are exercising their rights.”

In February 2009, after repeatedly complaining to a supervisor about mechanical problems with a truck, the supervisor agreed to the complainant’s suggestion to leave work and return when the truck was repaired. The next day, the complainant’s employment was terminated.

A whistleblower complaint was filed with OSHA, and an agency whistleblower investigator found that the complainant was terminated unlawfully. Either party to the case can file an appeal with the Labor Department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges, but the complainant must immediately be reinstated regardless of whether the order is appealed.

United Auto Delivery and Recovery/Memphis Auto Auction is a commercial carrier that provides vehicle repossession services in the Midwest, and sells and auctions recovered vehicles. Its headquarters are in Memphis, Tenn., and the company has approximately 50 non-union drivers.

First Corporate-Manslaughter Conviction Over Employee Death in the UK, Delivers £385,000 Penalty.

February 27, 2011 By in Jack Benton, News Tags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Peter Eaton

The first company to stand trial under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 has been fined £385,000 after being found guilty by the jury at Winchester Crown Court.

The conviction of Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings Ltd came after a two-week trial at the court, where the company answered charges by the Crown Prosecution Service in relation to the death of employee Alexander Wright on 5 September 2008.

In handing down the sentence on 17 February, the judge confirmed the company could pay the fine over a 10-year stretch, with £38,500 due every year of that period. The company does not have to pay any costs.

Mr Wright, 27, had been left working alone in a 3.5m-deep trench to ‘finish up’ after the managing director of Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings, Peter Eaton (pictured centre), left for the day.

A short time later, the trench collapsed on Mr Wright and buried him. On hearing his cry for help, one of the plot-owners called the emergency services while another ran to the trench where he found Mr Wright buried up to his head. He climbed into the trench and removed some of the soil to enable the junior geologist to breathe, but a further torrent of earth fell into the pit, covering Mr Wright completely. Despite the plot-owner’s best efforts to free him, Mr Wright died of asphyxiation.

Peter Eaton had originally been charged with manslaughter by gross negligence, as well as a health and safety offence, in his own capacity but these charges were dropped after a successful application by his defence team last October on the grounds of his poor health. The company also originally faced a separate health and safety offence, but this was dropped by the prosecution in January this year after the judge raised the issue of whether the two different burdens of proof for the two remaining charges might confuse a jury.

In convicting the company on 15 February, the jury found that the company’s system of work in digging trial pits was wholly and unnecessarily dangerous. The court heard the company ignored industry guidance, which prohibited entry into excavations more than 1.2 metres deep, by allowing junior employees to enter into and work in unsupported trial pits, typically from 2 to 3.5 metres deep.

Detective Inspector Giulia Marogna, of Gloucestershire Constabulary, who investigated the case with the support of the HSE, described Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings’ approach to health and safety as “cavalier”, and the way it taught and supervised its junior engineers as “inherently dangerous”.

She added: “Every year people are killed and seriously injured following the collapse of an excavation. This case should serve as a reminder to the construction industry that vertical sides of excavations can never be relied upon to stay up without support, no matter how stable the ground may appear to be.”

Kevin Bridges (pictured, far right), partner at Pinsent Masons, which represented Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings, said: “The company will, over the coming days, consider all of its options, including any potential grounds of appeal. It remains to be seen whether this case has provided any general assistance in the interpretation of what is the most serious offence that a company can commit, and whether it will give rise to wider problems for the CPS in prosecuting this new and controversial legislation in the future.”

On behalf of the company and Peter Eaton, Bridges said they had held Alex Wright “in the highest regard and deeply regret the tragic incident which resulted in the loss of this talented young man”.

Paul Verrico, a solicitor-advocate with Eversheds, said the case is unlikely to be a landmark in terms of a test of the new law, but believes the conviction “will doubtless be hailed by both the CPS and the HSE as a success”.

He added that the physical stress of the process will not have been lost on those holding senior positions. He said: “It is well documented that the managing director [Peter Eaton] has been very ill, in no small part due to the stress of being charged with manslaughter in his own right and the undoubted impact on his business.

Commenting on the level of the fine, Helen Devery, a partner at Berrymans Lace Mawer LLP, said: “The size of the fine is intended to make a significant impact on any organisation and, while Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings may have had a modest turnover, larger and more profitable organisations, successfully convicted, can expect fines well above the Sentencing Guidelines Council’s £500,000 starting point.”

Following the jury’s verdict, Mr Wright’s family revealed their relief that “justice has been done” but stressed that, having visited the trench site, they couldn’t believe that “any employer of good integrity or sound intentions would allow or expect any employee to commit themselves to such a danger”.

40 Years of OSHA milestones, Visualized

February 27, 2011 By in Jack Benton 1 Comment

On April 28, America’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will celebrate four decades of making U.S. workplaces safer. In advance of the big day, OSHA has released a new, interactive timeline outlining the organization’s biggest milestones over the past 40 years.

“Today workplaces in America are far safer than forty years ago,” OSHA Administrator David Michaels noted in a press release issued today. “Our progress gives us hope and confidence that OSHA will continue to make a lasting difference in the lives of our nation’s 130 million workers, and their families.”

Wondering when the Vinyl Chloride standard was implemented? How about the safety standards for fall protection? Or shipyard fire protection rules? It’s all in the comprehensive and easy-to-use OSHA timeline (also viewable in flipbook, list and map formats), complete with one-click access to additional information about each milestone and event.

OSHA’s effect on American workplaces since its inception have been phenomenal: Since the organization was created, on-the-job fatality rates dropped from an estimated 14,000 workers killed annually in 1970, to approximately 4,340 in 2009 (in spite of the fact U.S. employment has almost doubled and now includes over 130 million workers at more than 7.2 million worksites).

Pier 1 Imports Recalls 370,000 Golden Tea Lights Due to Fire Hazard

February 24, 2011 By in Consumer Alert, Consumer Safety, CPSC News, CPSC Recalls, Jack Benton Tags: , , , , , , ,

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. It is illegal to resell or attempt to resell a recalled consumer product.

Name of Product: Golden tea lights sold with ornament tea light holders

Units: About 370,000 tea lights in United States and 30,000 tea lights in Canada

Importer: Pier 1 Imports®, of Fort Worth, Texas

Hazard: The flame from the tea lights can burn with a high flame, posing a fire hazard.

Incidents/Injuries: The firm has received four reports of high flames. In one of these incidents, the consumer suffered a minor burn.

Description: This recall involves all tea lights in golden tin cups sold in sets of five with either the Red Ornament Tea Light Holder (SKU 2473959) or the White Ornament Tea Light Holder (SKU 2473961). The SKU number is found on the packaging.

Sold exclusively at: Pier 1 Imports stores from September 2010 through January 2011 for between $2 and $8.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled tea lights and return them to their nearest Pier 1 Imports store to receive new tea lights.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Pier 1 Imports at (800) 245-4595 between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. CT Monday through Friday or visit Pier 1 Imports’ website at www.pier1.com

Note: Health Canada’s press release is available at http://cpsr-rspc.hc-sc.gc.ca/PR-RP/recall-retrait-eng.jsp?re_id=1281

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CPSC is still interested in receiving incident or injury reports that are either directly related to this product recall or involve a different hazard with the same product. Please tell us about it by visiting www.saferproducts.gov

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under the agency’s jurisdiction. The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard. The CPSC’s work to ensure the safety of consumer products – such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals – contributed significantly to the decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years.

To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury, call CPSC’s Hotline at (800) 638-2772 or CPSC’s teletypewriter at (301) 595-7054. To join a CPSC e-mail subscription list, please go to https://www.cpsc.gov/cpsclist.aspx. Consumers can obtain recall and general safety information by logging on to CPSC’s Web site at www.cpsc.gov.

2010 AHA Guidelines for CPR and ECC

February 24, 2011 By in Emergency Preparedness, Firefighter Training & Safety, Healthcare Workers, Home Safety, News, Personal Safety, Red Cross, Training Tags: , , , , , , ,

Based upon the 2010 American Heart Association Guidelines for CPR and ECC, the sequence for CPR has been changed from A-B-C (Airway-Breathing-Compressions) to C-A-B (Compressions-Airway-Breathing). Changing the sequence from A-B-C to C-A-B allows all rescuers to begin chest compressions right away. Research shows that rescuers who started CPR with opening the airway took 30 critical seconds longer to begin chest compressions than rescuers who began CPR with chest compressions. View the video/link above for more information.