The Weekly Toll

State OSHA will investigate cannon death

August 8 -- The state office of the Occupational Safety and Health Division is investigating what caused a cannon to blow apart and kill a 16-year-old Aumsville boy at Camp Meriwether.

Christopher Kroker was employed as a counselor at the camp near Tillamook, so the death qualifies as a workplace accident.

Investigators will look into possible manufacturing defects, procedures, maintenance and training, said Steve Corson, spokesman for OR-OSHA.

OSHA Investigating Roofer's Lightning Death

August 5, 2003

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Lightning from Monday's storms produced a deadly outcome for a local worker, NewsChannel 4's Marshall McPeek reported.

The worker, 17-year-old Herman Harnandez Vasquez, was killed when he was struck by lightning. The accident is under investigation.

Vasquez was working on a roof in Hilliard when Monday's thunderstorms rolled in. He took a direct hit from the lightning bolt. Despite rescue efforts, he was pronounced dead a short time later.

There are more questions than answers at this point. Not the least of which is whether any safety regulations were violated. Did he have safety training? Should he have even been working this job? It's going to take a while for investigators to come up with answers.

"This is simply an act of God," said Mike Feazel of Feazel Roofing.

(Isn't it always?)

More here: The death of an underage worker struck by lightning while roofing this week underscores how immigrant workers are injured or killed at disproportionate rates, advocates said.



OSHA is investigating fatal accident at plant

Tuesday, August 5, 2003

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating a forklift accident that killed a Sanford man while he was working in Berwick on Friday.

Thomas Brown, 48, was operating a stand-behind forklift at Prime Tanning Co. Inc. on School Street when he backed into a storage rack.

He got pinned between a shelving unit and the forklift as he backed it up about 3:20 p.m., Berwick police said.



Instructor suspended over death of trainee
A firefighter instructor who allegedly failed to recognize a Pennsylvania trainee's fatal heatstroke symptoms has been suspended without pay for 30 days, a newspaper reported Thursday.

County commissioners in Frederick County, Md., suspended Jeff Coombe late last week in connection with the July 2002 death of Andrew J. Waybright, The Frederick News-Post reported, citing anonymous sources.

Worker died from head trauma, autopsy finds

Aug. 9, 2003

Racine - A fall from a great height and severe head trauma will most likely be listed as the the cause of death of a Milwaukee man who was involved in a construction site accident in Racine last week, Racine County Medical Examiner Thomas Terry said Thursday.

Robinson fell from scaffolding and was impaled on a 5-inch bolt at a construction site near Batten Airport at Mount Pleasant St. and South St. He was 55.



Worker dies after fall at former power plant

Aug. 09, 2003 APPLETON — A 29-year-old man died after falling about 20 feet from the roof of an old power plant.

The man was a member of a five-person crew from A&A Environmental, of Poynette. The group was removing asbestos from the roof.