MOUNT VERNON — In September, a fatal accident killed Roger A. Ferenbaugh, a construction worker with Facemyer’s Backhoe and Dozer Services, at the Rolls-Royce facility. Facemyer’s, which does business as FM Earth, is a subcontractor working with Corna Kokosing Construction Co. The accident has been under investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
OSHA inspected the site on Sept. 16, and the investigation, which ended Nov. 20, resulted in two citations being issued against FM Earth.
The first citation stated that “the employer did not initiate and maintain accident prevention program(s) as may be necessary to comply with this part: On the site, the employer did not ensure that an accident prevention program was initiated, developed or maintained to ensure compliance with procedures to be followed in order to avoid unsafe conditions. The program should address hazards, such as but no limited to, supporting material during the cutting process.”
A penalty of $1,500 was charged against the company.
The second citation, stated that “the employer did not instruct each employee in the recognition and avoidance of unsafe condition(s) and the regulation(s) applicable to his work environment to control or eliminate any hazard(s) or other exposure to illness or injury: The employer did not ensure that employees operating a STIHL TS400 Cutquik Saw were trained on safe cutting methods for cutting concrete pipe including but not limited to supporting the work piece in such a way that the cut remains open during the cutting process and when the cut is finished.”
This citation resulted in another penalty of $1,500.
“The employer, as a part of the accident prevention program, had to talk about the use of the cut off saw, the cutquik saw,” said Debborah Zubaty, spokeswoman for OSHA. “So in other words, when we looked at their safety and health program, they had information on prevention for other things because they do excavation, trenching and have backhoes, but they had nothing on the cutquik saw, so we said a part of your safety and health program has to talk about that.”
Zubaty said FM Earth needed to include information about the safe operation of the cutquik saw in its accident prevention program.
“We come up with a gravity-based penalty, then we have to give further reductions for history,” she said in explaining how the fines were determined.
Zubaty confirmed that FM Earth had no prior accident history with OSHA, and is a small company. Penalties vary based on the size and history of the company.
“[Overall] we look at ‘how can we prevent an injury?’ [because] you can’t put a price tag on someone’s life,” she said.
There were no problems with the investigation, she said, and the employer was very cooperative with OSHA.
“Whatever we needed, whatever document we need, whatever interview we needed the company was very cooperative with the agency,” she said.
Zubaty said OSHA will follow up with FM Earth to ensure it has complied with taking the corrective measures ordered by OSHA.
