Worker deaths result in OSHA citations

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.northwestgeorgia.com/local/local_story_133193420.html

Published May 13, 2009 07:33 pm

From Staff Reports

A local company and a subcontractor have been cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration following separate work-related accidents that killed two people.

OSHA, a division of the U.S. Department of Labor, cited the Aladdin Division of Mohawk Industries for two serious violations and three other violations, and proposed fining the company a total of $8,550. Bradley Brookshire, 45, of Rocky Face, was pulled into a coating machine and trapped under a roller at Aladdin Mills at 2001 Antioch Road on Nov. 10, 2008, according to a Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office report.

In a separate incident, OSHA cited subcontractor Jerry Shelton for two serious violations, but no fine was proposed. Glenn Stone, 44 of Chatsworth, was helping steady a metal utility pole that was being put up to serve as a flagpole at Dalton Plaza South, a shopping area near the Carbondale exit off I-75, when he was apparently electrocuted.

In the Aladdin incident, OSHA found “employees were exposed to being caught in the rollers of the coater machine when they reached through unprotected areas/ends to pull wrinkles out of carpeting.” The proposed fine is $6,300. OSHA noted the violation was corrected during an inspection.

OSHA found in the tufting area that “the reverse side of the point of operation of the tufting machines was not guarded. Employees are exposed to anywhere from 763 to 1,800 industrial sewing needles that attach yarn to the primary backing during the tufting process.” The proposed fine is $2,250. Mohawk has until May 21 for that violation to be corrected, OSHA said.

Those were the serious violations. Other violations concerned six compressed gas cylinders that were not properly secured, openings in the fourth floor of the extrusion area that were not properly covered, and florescent tubes in light fixtures in the creel section that were not properly protected.

FULL story at link.