OSHA has fined Lincoln, R.I. company multiple times (lost his leg, buttock and half of one hip)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.projo.com/news/content/PCL_SAFETY_02-17-08_CE90V7G_v18.32c8074.html

11:05 AM EST on Sunday, February 17, 2008

By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal Staff Writer

LINCOLN — The December accident suffered by Leonardo Cos Elias, who lost his leg, buttock and half of one hip after becoming trapped in a machine at Packaging Concepts Ltd., is the most serious in the company’s recent recorded history. That accident follows scores of other injuries and accidents documented by the company since 2000.

PCL, an industrial facility at 15 Wellington Rd., in Lincoln, manufactures display cases and fixtures for major retailers including Target, Wal-Mart and Home Depot. It averages annual sales of $28 million and annual revenues of $10 million to $50 million, according to an online company profile based on Dun & Bradstreet data. A subsidiary of Abbott Industries Inc., PCL employs 225 workers at its 200,000-square-foot facility.

Between 2000 and 2006, at least 125 injuries were recorded at the company, according to federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration records. There were far fewer recorded injuries in 2005 and 2006.

The records, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, include yearly injury logs from 2000 to 2006, the most current available. OSHA requires injuries to be recorded when they involve either loss of consciousness, medical treatment beyond first aid, restricted work activity or job transfer, or days away from work, or when those work-related injuries and illnesses are diagnosed by a physician or health-care professional.

The logs for the company record injuries ranging from a partly amputated finger, to a broken pelvis, crushed and fractured fingers, punctured palms, fingers and thumbs; hernias, severe lacerations, bruises, contusions, methylene chloride splashed in an eye, pulled tendons, eye abrasions and dozens of sprains and strains.

They occurred in different departments, primarily in production, the saw room, the sample room and the warehouse.

FULL story at link.