Judge Tells Politicians To Act Like Civilized Grown-Ups

Judge Joan H. Lefkow, whose husband and mother were murdered, has criticized certain politicians and right-wing religious leaders for "condoning a climate of 'harsh rhetoric' about the judiciary that she said could incite violence and endanger judges' lives."

She called on the panel to "publicly and persistently repudiate gratuitous attacks on the judiciary."

Lefkow was testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the need to increase security for court employees. She was referring to a number of statements made by Republican politicians in the wake of the Terri Schiavo controversy subtly hinting that "activist judges" may face a violent fate.

"We need your help in tempering the tone on the debates that concern the independence of the judiciary," Judge Lefkow said. "I have come to know scores of judges during my 22 years as a magistrate judge, bankruptcy judge and district judge. Whether a liberal or conservative, I have never encountered a judge in the federal judiciary who can remotely be described as posing a threat as Mr. [Pat] Robertson said, 'probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings.' "

Mr. Robertson had criticized the federal courts during a recent appearance on the ABC program "This Week," saying, "They're destroying the fabric that holds our nation together." He continued: "Over 100 years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that's held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings."

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My, um, dog ate it...or something

Ha, ha. Those guys over at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) have such a sense of humor. Of course, I'd probably be yucking it up more too, if I controlled both houses of Congress and the guy I elected bought was sitting in the White House.

NAM's "Workplace Watch" this month has a hilarious list compiled by Careerbuilder.com of "pretty weird excuses" that people have used to play hooky from work. Things like:

• I was sprayed by a skunk.
  
• I tripped over my dog and was knocked unconscious.
  
• My bus broke down and was held up by robbers.

Yupp, workers say the darnedest things!

A little further down, NAM gives a ringing endorsement to H.R. 739, one of the four OSHA deform bills introduced by Congressman Charlie "OSHA Killed the Tooth Fairy" Norwood (R-GA). H.R. 739 gives employers a little extra time in case they accidentally forget to appeal OSHA citations by the 15 day deadline if they can show "mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect" as the reason.

(Surprise?!)

Well, guess what? The Humor Department over here at Confined Space world headquarters has come up with its own top ten list of excuses employers give for not appealing their OSHA citations on time:

• My secretary lost it.
  
• My computer's memory isn't big enough to download the whole thing.
  
• I was too busy providing hours of comprehensive safety and health training to my most valuable resources.
• I thought it was junk mail.
  
• I was too busy disciplining employees for injuries suffered because they weren't working safely.
• My lawyer was busy working on my tax fraud case
  
• It was too heavy, I was afraid I'd get a back injury.
  
• I took it on a hunting trip and my dog vomited on it so I had to throw it out.*
  
• I gave it to one of my employees to hold on to, but he was crushed in a trench collapse and it was too messy to read.
  
• Give me a break! I've had traffic tickets that cost me more than this.
• But I gave money to President Bush's re-election campaign last year!

*This was an actual excuse given by former OSHA Director of Health Standards, Leonard Vance, in the mid-1980's for not being able to provide his meeting records to a Congressional committee investigating possible illegal meetings with company representatives.

Blaming The Worker: In Texas City and On the Rails

BP blames employees for fatal blasts

Mineta: Railroad safety plan will deal with human errors

Headlines like these always make me wonder about the human tendency to find scapegoats to blame after a tragedy. Is it just a matter of companies wanted to point the finger elsewhere, anywhere away from themselves or the decision makers, or away from problems that are hard or expensive to resolve? And why don’t journalists generally look deeper than the simple “worker screwed up” story. Does blaming workers satisfy a basic urge in people to always have a readily understandable villain to blame. Blaming incompetent workers for accidents is so easy. Just fire them and the problem’s solved. Right?

Not quite. In October 2003, NASA released a report on the Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster. When I reviewed the report, I urged readers to study Chapter 8, which was written by Dianne Vaugh, who wrote the classic work on the original Challenger disaster. Vaugh explores the systemic failures of the NASA safety system and how the problems uncovered after the Challenger disaster reappeared to cause the Columbia's problems. The most interesting parts of the report focuses on the management system problems rather than individual failures. Vaughn cautions however that

the Board's focus on the context in which decision making occurred does not mean that individuals are not responsible and accountable. To the contrary, individuals always must assume responsibility for their actions. What it does mean is that NASA's problems cannot be solved simply by retirements, resignations, or transferring personnel.

The footnote accompanying this paragraph states

Changing personnel is a typical response after an organization has some kind of harmful outcome. It has great symbolic value. A change in personnel points to individuals as the cause and removing them gives the false impression that the problems have been solved, leaving unresolved organizational system problems.

The fact is that human beings inevitably make errors and errors by operators must be expected. But rather than focusing on the operators who make the errors, effective accident analysis – analysis that actually wants to get to the root causes and effective solutions -- looks for the conditions which made the errors possible.

These errors can be rooted in poor design, gaps in supervision, undetected manufacturing defect or maintenance failures, unworkable procedures, shortfalls in training, less than adequate tools and equipment. In addition, these conditions can be present for many years before they combine to result in a tragic incident. In fact, BP made the point that they had been operating with questionable equipment for many years with no problem.

Lets take a short look at the stories behind the headlines above.

According to an Interim Report issued by BP yesterday, the Texas City refinery incident occurred in the isomerization (ISOM) unit. A processing tower, called the raffinate splitter that housed hydrocarbon liquid and vapor, overfilled and overheated. The liquid and vapor mix was overpressurized, flooded into an adjacent Blowdown Drum & Stack, overflowed and escaped into the atmosphere around the unit. The resulting vapor cloud was then ignited by a still-unknown source.

The basic message of the press conference was that worker error was to blame:

If ISOM unit managers had properly supervised the startup or if ISOM unit operators had followed procedures or taken corrective action earlier, the explosion would not have occurred, the investigation team said….. "The mistakes made during the startup of this unit were surprising and deeply disturbing. The result was an extraordinary tragedy we didn't foresee," said Ross Pillari, president of BP Products North America, Inc.

Reading more deeply into BP's report, however, one finds two factors that actually get much closer to the root causes of this incident

• The alternative to using the blowdown stack is a flare system that burns off the excess material. In fact, the report states that “Blowdown stacks have been recognized as potentially hazardous for this type of service, and the industry has moved more towards closed relief systems to flare” and that ”The investigation team also concluded the use of a flare system, instead of a blow down stack, would have reduced the severity of the incident." In fact the report noted that there were several times over the past ten years when the relief line could have been tied into a safer flare system, but that “the true level of the hazard was not seen.” In fact, use of the blowdown stack was increased and changes were made to reduce its effectiveness over the past several years.
  
  
• The reason so many people were killed is that they were located in trailers directly adjacent to the blowdown stack. Turns out that the Texas City Refinery has a management of change process to evaluate hazards associated with the placement of temporary structures. This process was designed to ensure that the trailers were safe to use and that they were put in a safe place. Although these hazard reviews were conducted prior to placing the trailers, they “did not recognize the possibility that multiple failures by ISOM unit personnel could result in such a massive flow of fluids and vapors to the blow down stack.” Pillari noted that “Plans could have been made to move them away before the startup operation”

Now, let’s go back for a moment to the “surprising and deeply disturbing” worker error elements. The company stated that there should have been a plan to move non-essential personnel away from the area before the startup operation, and that operators failed to sound the evacuation alarm at crucial times which led to personnel remaining in place and being exposed to the hazard. Supervisors failed to provide appropriate leadership and hourly workers failed to follow written procedures. Supervisors did not verify correct procedures were being used or followed by unit operators. Furthermore supervisors were absent from the unit during critical periods and there was confusion about who was in charge.

Consequently, BP is firing several workers and disciplining others.

Crucial to any root cause investigation, however, is one word: “Why?” Investigators need to keep asking “why?” until the root causes are identified. For example, why didn’t workers follow proper procedures? Were they lazy and incompetent, smoking weed and napping? Or were the procedures too complicated? Were the procedures normally followed to the letter, or generally ignored or circumvented? Were workers adequately trained to respond to this type of emergency even though it had never happened before and, according to the report, was never anticipated? Were the operators too overwhelmed with handling the emergency itself to think about sounding the alarm? And why were supervisors absent during critical periods? Was it common practice for them to be absent? And whose responsibility was it to address “confusion about who was in charge.”

I don’t know the answers to any of these questions, but the need to be asked.

One of the few reporters who seem to have actually read the report was Dina Cappiello of the Houston Chronicle who wrote an article, based on BP’s report, about the company’s failure to replace the blowdown stack:

BP continued to release dangerous and flammable vapors from a ventilation stack at its Texas City refinery, despite chances over the last decade to replace it, an internal investigation by the company has found.

While other refineries swapped the outdated stacks with more modern flares that burn off gases, BP passed on two opportunities — in 1995 and 2002 — to replace the 50-year-old vent stack that erupted into a geyser of flammable vapor and liquid March 23 after a nearby tower was overfilled and overheated.

That choice likely led to the explosion being called one of the deadliest industrial accidents in U.S. history, said Ross Pillari, president of BP Products North America at the investigation's release.

"The report notes that ... use of a flare system, instead of a blowdown stack, would have reduced the severity of the incident," said Pillari. "There was other work going on in the refinery and these would have been opportunities to take this unit to a flare. There is no documentation as to why this didn't happen."

Another Chronicle article covered the reaction of the union and others critical of the BP report:

Union officials, victims and attorneys representing dozens of injured workers or the families of the deceased, said Pillari made scapegoats of the low-level refinery workers while sidestepping management's own responsibility.

"Blaming workers doesn't solve the problem of unsafe conditions in that refinery," said Gary Beevers, Region 6 director of the United Steelworkers union.

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Then there was the article about Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta blaming worker error for the Graniteville, South Carolina accident last January that released chlorine, killing 9 workers.

Preliminary findings in the Jan. 6 Graniteville wreck, which killed nine people and injured hundreds, have placed the blame on the crew of a Norfolk Southern train who failed to switch the main track into its proper position. An oncoming train then crashed into the parked cars on the side spur, rupturing a chlorine tanker and releasing a toxic cloud over the tiny textile town about 60 miles southwest of here. Some 5,400 residents were evacuated.

That type of human error, the largest single factor that accounted for 38 percent of all train accidents in the past five years, is not addressed by Federal Railroad Administration regulations, Mineta said. Railroad company operating rules address human error, and employees who violate those rules can be disciplined or dismissed.

The plan that Mineta proposed contained a number of measures that go far beyond just preventing workers from screwing up, including requiring

more training from the federal agency and possible civil penalties. In the worst case, employees could be barred from certain train assignments, said Dan Smith, the federal agency's associate administrator for safety.

The plan also would address crew fatigue, help develop technology that can alert crews to broken rails and improve hazardous materials safety by letting local emergency workers know immediately what material could be involved in a crash.

Again, the headline and Mineta’s main message focus on worker error, although reading deeper you find mention of fatigue and lack of warning devices. I wrote last week about how rail scheduling issues and antiquated regulation put train crews in a permanent state of jet lag.

Rebecca Schmidt of West Columbia, who lost her son, 28-year-old train engineer Chris Seeling, in the accident, had a pretty good handle on the problems faced by train crews:

"I'm really excited about this and hope something positive comes out of it - especially the electric signals and I know that fatigue is a huge issue,...I definitely think that you cannot rely on human judgment, especially when a crew has worked 12 hours and they're tired. There needs to be some type of electronic signal," she said, as a train roared through the city of Columbia, blasting its horn.

She also said there should be a clean air supply on trains and more should be done to reduce speeds.

The point is that human error may be one of the "direct causes" of an incident, but it’s almost never one of the root causes. A direct cause is the action that directly results in the occurrence, while root causes are usually management system problems which, if corrected, would not only have prevented that specific problem, but other similar problems as well.

The problem with solely blaming (and firing) workers, you’re taking actions that will prevent future incidents. If, as in the BP case, the root causes had more to do with the management systems that allowed the continued use the blowdown drums and located the trailers in the danger zone, then just firing a few workers who didn’t follow proper procedures (which may have been confusing) isn’t going to keep the same incident from happening again. And disciplining workers for not following proper rail procedures isn't going to be too effective if scheduling issues mean that no on is getting enough sleep.

Despite the "headlines" from their report, BP itself obviously knows better than to just blame the workers. In addition to firing and disciplining employees, they announced that they will modify or replace all blow down systems which handle heavier-than- air hydrocarbon vapor or light hydrocarbon liquids and locate trailers far from any danger areas.


BP News release here
PIllari Statement here

More BP Texas City Explosion Stories.

Related Stories

• "Engineers and conductors sleep on trains. Anyone who tells you different is not being straight with you," May 9, 2005
• Deaths and Injuries at US Steel: Blame the Workers?, Feb 24, 2005
• Behavioral Safety Comes To The Railroads, November 15, 2004
• Blame the Worker: Chinese Style, January 3, 2004
• Worker Error Department (cont'd), April 14, 2003
• Worker Error Department, Part 2 April 11, 2003
• Worker Error Department, April 10, 2003
  
  

AFL-CIO Cuts: It Only Gets Worse For Workers

Journalist and former labor organizer Brendan Coyne has written an article about the AFL-CIO's restructuring for The New Standard, highlighting the evisceration of the Health and Safety Department. Read it, it contains an interview with AFL-CIO Health and Safety director Peg Seminario as well as some of the same old tripe from me. Of special interest are observations by soon-to-be-laid-off AFL-CIO staffer Rob McGarrah on the effect that the restructuring will have on injured workers:

McGarrah is the AFL-CIO’s point man on workers’ compensation issues. A lawyer with a Master’s in Public Health, he travels the country to meet with legislators at the state and national levels, attempting to counter the actions of lobbyists in the employ of insurance companies and other well-funded industries. It is, he said, an uphill battle since there are many of them and only one of him.

"I’m just one person and we don’t have that large of a budget," McGarrah said. "Every time I travel to a state over workers’ comp issues, I run into at least dozen [insurance] industry lawyers." As the national organization’s only workers’ compensation specialist, McGarrah said he is concerned that the cuts will have a detrimental effect on workers’ ability to be fairly compensated when they are injured at work. Most injured workers are forced to subsist at or near the poverty level by state compensation laws, he said.

According to a 2003 study by the capitol-based think tank National Academy of Social Insurance, Workers’ Compensation payments in many states barely meet the poverty level. Sixteen states allow injured workers to live in poverty, with Mississippi bringing up the rear, compensating them at slightly higher than 70 percent of the poverty level, according to the study.

With his function soon to disappear, McGarrah worries that unions lack the resources and expertise to adequately combat the insurance industry at the political level. "The difficulty, from the very beginning, is that the AFL-CIO is outspent right now, plain and simple," McGarrah said. "The industry has billions of dollars to spend on this at the state and national level. We don’t. With these cuts… well, it only gets worse for unions."

Roger Cook, director of the Western New York Council on Occupational Safety and Health (WNYCOSH), summed up the significance of the demise of the AFL-CIO’s Health and Safety program:

If nothing else, Cook said, the AFL-CIO currently sets the agenda on health and safety issues. Now he has no idea who will.

"The AFL-CIO has been a unifying voice for safety and health nationally," he said. "And the AFL-CIO's commitment to this issue through the department filters down to state and local affiliates that workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths are unacceptable and that this is something that rank and file members and would-be members in organizing drives care about. It sets a tone for the labor movement."

"Basically, the Safety and Health department has been organized labor's voice on safety and health in Washington, DC and around the country," Cook said.

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To Die For Halliburton

Halliburton shareholders meet tomorrow in Houston. In addition to the $7.1 billion revenue the company has made off its recent work in Iraq last year, there are several other things to note, like FBI and SEC investigatoins into Halliburton's work in Nigeria, Iran, Iraq, and the Balkans, investigations into systematic accounting fraud, and continuing investigations into widespread systematic overcharging in Iraq.

But, according to a new report by Corpwatch, "Houston: We Still Have a Problem," there is an item of special concern to families of Halliburton employees:

Sixty Halliburton employees were killed in Iraq in 2004. This tragic number is compounded by allegations by victims' families that say Halliburton misrepresented the true nature of their loved ones' duties and intentionally placed them in harm's way. These families are now suing Halliburton in both Texas and California.

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Refinery Deaths and Injuries Hidden By Flawed OSHA Recordkeeping Rules

Want to hear something "funny" about the BP Amoco explosion that killed 15 workers last March? BP's official death rate at the Texas City plant looked the same the day after the explosion as it did the day before the explosion. That's because companies are required by OSHA only to keep logs of the employees on their payroll; employees of contractors working at the site go on logs of the employer of the contractor, which often aren't even in the same industry as the main employer.

The problem was identified almost 15 years ago in a so-called "John Gray Report," or "Managing Worker Safety and Health: The Case of Contract Labor in the U.S. Petrochemical Industry." The John Gray report was commissioned by OSHA in the aftermath of the 1989 Phillips 66 explosion that killed 23 workers, injured 130 and did $750 million in damage. The John Gray Report contained a variety of recommendations regarding the use of contractors in the petrochemical industry, among which was that "OSHA should require plants to collect and record site specific injury and illness data for all workers on site (except for separate an distinct, engaged in new construction)." OSHA never acted on this recommendation.

The Houston Chronicle has picked up on this bit of not-so-ancient history and applied it to the current investigation of the Texas City BP Amoco explosion:

Long considered one of the nation's most dangerous industries, oil refining suddenly seemed one of the safest when the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported no refinery deaths in 2002 or 2003.

But at least nine people were asphyxiated, burned or fell to their deaths at our nation's refineries during those years, according to a Houston Chronicle review of media accounts, industry statistics and fatal accident reports to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Twenty more have died since then — 15 in the March 23 BP Texas City accident alone.

How do the refinery dead disappear?

The answer is fairly simple.

Increasingly, the accuracy of government safety statistics is undermined by the changing work force. These days, up to half of refinery workers are contractors, who generally get some of the most dangerous jobs.

Since these folks do not work directly for petroleum companies — even though some toil for years at the same refinery — their deaths get diverted to several catch-all construction or maintenance categories, such as "1799, Special Trade Contractors, Not Elsewhere Classified."

"They'll show up in the statistics but not as refinery workers," explained retired Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) economist Guy Toscano. "The more dangerous an occupation, the less likely a company would want to hire those people directly — they want to boost their own safety rates and decrease their liability."

Nor are such deaths generally counted in the refineries' individual injury and accident logs, which OSHA uses to determine its "hit lists" of dangerous facilities targeted for more frequent inspections. The way the U.S. safety statistics are kept, a work site will not generally get a black mark if contractors from other companies are killed or injured there — only if a permanent employee dies or gets hurt.

For former OSHA Administrator Patrick Tyson, that's a real hole in the workplace safety net. Without contractor fatality and injury data, OSHA inspectors may not pick up a problem refinery, said Tyson, now a safety consultant with the Altanta firm of Constangy Brooks & Smith.

"If the site gets picked up, it's going to be almost a fluke," Tyson said.

John Miles, the OSHA administrator for the five-state region that includes Texas, agreed in an interview that reporting that emphasizes the employer over the site of an accident can affect OSHA's ability to both find and target dangerous businesses in some cases. But he said right now no one is pushing for reforms in the reporting system.

Industries such as petroleum refining justify their heavy use of contractors by arguing that for highly specialized work such a "turnarounds," it makes more sense to bring in specialists as needed, rather than employing them when they aren't needed or using less skilled regular employees.

While there may be some truth to the specialization justification, the fact is that the petroleum industry, along with other hazardous industries such as steel, are increasingly contracting out their more dangerous jobs to make the main company look safer.

In refineries, contractors are often assigned to do the most dangerous jobs, including maintenance "turnaround" — cleaning and repairing and restarting equipment — as well as hot work, like welding. Some are self-employed who are exempt from many OSHA rules.

If the usual guidelines are followed, none of the 15 people who lost their lives in the refinery fire in March in Texas City — one of the worst refinery accidents in decades — would be counted as refinery deaths since none worked directly for BP, the refinery owner.

Ultimately, if enough deaths are factored out because they're contractors, the entire industry may drop off the official federal count of fatalities by industry. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, in its annual Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, does not list any industry with less than three fatalities "to protect the privacy of the families of those who died and to honor confidentiality agreements made with states that provide the data."

Which brings us back to the 1989 John Gray report. The bottom line is that unless and until injury, illness and fatality data is kept and publicized on a site (rather than company) basis, it will be difficult, if not impossible for federal authorities or employers to gain a realistic sense of hazards in any given industry.

Related Articles

• BP Kills More Than Any Other Refining Firm, May 15, 2005
• "I Should Have Been Killed" -- Survivors of Texas City BP Blast, April 19, 2005
• BP Amoco Texas City Update: Plant Owners Aware of Venting and Trailer Location Hazards, April 10, 2005
• Workplace Safety Enforcement: A Tale of Two Countries, April 5, 2005
• Transparency? Or PR Savvy?, March 26, 2005
• BP In California: "callous and intentional noncompliance purely for economic reasons", March 24, 2005
• BP, site of fatal explosion, is Nation's Leader in Accidents, March 24, 2005
• At Least 14 Dead, Hundreds Injured In Huge Refinery Explosion, March 23, 2005
  
  

BP Kills More Than Any Other Refining Firm

BP Amoco, the company that owns the Texas City refinery where an explosion killed 15 workers last March, leads the U.S. refining industry in deaths over the last decade, with 22 fatalities since 1995, according to an investigation by the Houston Chronicle. Those 22 deaths account for more than a quarter of those killed in refineries nationwide.

Nineteen of BP's 22 deaths came in the last 18 months, including two separate explosions in Texas City and the fall of a worker through a rotted railing in 2004 at the refinery water plant in Whiting, Ind. Earlier this month, a maintenance worker was found dead inside a tank in BP's Cherry Point refinery in Washington, an incident under investigation as either asphyxiation or natural death, according to Whatcom County Medical Examiner Gary Goldfogel.

Naomi Brimer, whose husband, Terry, fell when a corroded railing gave way at the Indiana refinery last year, said she didn't think BP or OSHA took safety violations seriously enough.

OSHA fined the company $1,625.

"I have a BP paper that says we will provide our employees with a safe work environment, but there wasn't one for my husband," Brimer said. "I don't feel like a $1,625 fine is enough of a motivator for them."

In fact, BP's record has been so bad, that just weeks before the March explosion, OSHA had put them on a special "enhanced enforcement" watchlist, because of a September 2004 explsion that killed two pipefitters and injured a third.

BP is the only major oil company on that list, said John Miles, OSHA's regional director.

Although the list is not made public, it is an exclusive club that includes construction contractors and industrial employers such as McWane Industries, the Alabama company with one of the nation's highest totals of workplace fatalities.

The petroleum industry, and BP Amoco often boast of low injury and illness statistics. For example, BP's Website boasts that

We achieved a reduction of over 10% in our Days Away From Work Case Frequency (DAFWCF) in 2004. A DAFWC is recorded when an injury results in an employee missing a day or more of work. Since 1990 our DAFWC rate has dropped from 0.09 per 200,000 hours worked to 0.08 in 2004. This performance exceeded our target set for 2004 and 2005, which is to achieve a DAFWCF across the BP group of better than 0.09.:

But injury and illnesses statistics, which include a lot of slips, trips, falls, strains and sprains miss the point when it comes to overall facility safety.

In Texas City, at least, BP officials might have focused so much on individual worker safety that they missed problems with overall system safety, said Glenn Erwin, a former Texas City refinery employee who monitors refinery safety nationwide for the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union.

"They spend all their time saying, 'Don't strain your back, don't get dirt in your eye,'" he said. Safety statistics improve because more workers are avoiding minor injuries, but lurking problems, such as the outmoded ventilator stack cited in the March blast, have been neglected.

"A good company will investigate all accidents, incidents and near misses and say: 'We'll fix what we find, and we'll follow it to completion,' " Erwin said. "In BP's case, they found the problem years ago — the vent stack — but they never fixed it."

Miles, the OSHA regional administrator, called the unit that blew up in Texas City "antiquated equipment that is no longer used."

And it's not just that refinery work is inherently dangerous:

Texas City's BP refinery, the nation's third-largest, has reported three fatal accidents in the past decade.

In contrast, the nation's two largest refineries in Baytown and Baton Rouge, La., both of which are owned by Exxon Mobil Corp., have had no fatal accidents since 1995.

All of the Exxon Mobil refineries in the United States reported only two work-related deaths, both involving contractors at a Torrance, Calif., refinery.

One man was electrocuted there while installing air-conditioning equipment because of an error by an electrical contractor working for another outside company. In the other death, a contractor was asphyxiated after an air line became twisted when he went inside a storage area where liquids are stored under pressure, according to Exxon officials.

In both cases, workers for contracting companies were found to have made errors or failed to follow Exxon policies. Two of the three companies involved no longer work for Exxon Mobil, said Exxon Mobil spokesman Russ Roberts.

Even the Chronicle's business columnist, Loren Steffy, is appalled at BP's record:

In response to all of this, we get a canned statement from Lord Browne: "We want BP to be a safe place to work. So as well as mourning for those we have lost, we are determined to learn from this tragedy and improve our safety record."

His words ring hollow.

BP's reputation, the statistics and government inspectors all tell a different story. BP hasn't learned from past tragedy. It hasn't updated equipment, such as the vent stack where the March explosion started. It hasn't enforced its own safety rules, such as those that restricted the location of a contractor trailer where most of the victims
died.

It seemingly has done little to change its habits. It simply offers empty words that fall like cold, hard rain on the memories of those who died.

Safety, the company says, is a priority.

Twenty-two graves in Texas City and around the country say otherwise.

Related Articles

• "I Should Have Been Killed" -- Survivors of Texas City BP Blast, April 19, 2005
• BP Amoco Texas City Update: Plant Owners Aware of Venting and Trailer Location Hazards, April 10, 2005
• Workplace Safety Enforcement: A Tale of Two Countries, April 5, 2005
• Transparency? Or PR Savvy?, March 26, 2005
• BP In California: "callous and intentional noncompliance purely for economic reasons", March 24, 2005
• BP, site of fatal explosion, is Nation's Leader in Accidents, March 24, 2005
• At Least 14 Dead, Hundreds Injured In Huge Refinery Explosion, March 23, 2005
  
  

Synergist Article For Non-AIHA Members

AIHA has graciously given me permission to post the .pdf of the article I wrote for the Synergist about blogging. My mother liked it, so it must be good.

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Trench Rescue: Generally Too Little, Too Late

I once did a trench safety workshop for some public works employees in New England. I asked them to raise their hands if they had received any trenching safety training. Only a few reaised their hands and I asked them to tell me about it.

"Well," one said, "They taught us how to dig someone out when the trench collapses."

That wasn't exactly what i was talking about. The problem is that a cubic yard of soil weights about 2700 pounds, the weight of a mid-sized automobile. A trench collapse may contain three to five cubic yards of soil. Do the math. Even if you're only buried up to your waist, successful rescue is unlikely; you're probably going to die.

This was the unfortunate lesson learned by rescuers in Pinellas County, Florida and an unfortunate B&B Professional Plumbing Inc employee, Charles Michael Morrison, 48:

Trapped Worker Dies Despite Rescuers' Efforts

PINELLAS PARK - A man working in a deep ditch as part of a sewer project Thursday was trapped when a wall of dirt collapsed on him and he died roughly an hour later, police and fire officials said.

Morrison was working in an unshored 12 to 15 foot deep trench.

He was buried anywhere from his waist up to his belly button, and he was conscious. Fire fighters were reluctant to go in to the ditch themselves to rescue the man, for fear of jeopardizing their own safety, Lewis said.

This was a legitimate fear, considering the fact that as many as 65 percent of all deaths from trench cave-ins are of would-be rescuers.

So, if we now all of this, why do people die in trench collapses week after week?

More here.

UPDATE:

The plumber killed in a trench accident Thursday died from blunt trauma caused by the heavy, fast-moving wall of dirt that collapsed on him, the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner's Office said Friday.

The force broke Charles "Mike" Morrison's ribs and fractured his pelvis, setting the stage for the cardiac arrest he suffered as workers tried to free him from the 15-foot-deep trench behind Intrepid Powerboats Inc. on Belcher Road.

Bill Pellan, the medical examiner's director of investigations, said cardiac arrest could have been brought on by various factors, including internal hemorrhaging and shock.
Morrison's family said Friday they were devastated by the death and attributed it to "other people's negligence."

"This was preventable," said Morrison's stepdaughter, Jennifer Butson, 24. "What we're just not understanding is how was this man placed in such a dangerous situation?"

Related Articles

• Just Another Trench Death: Well Covered For A Change , May 5, 2005
• Slow Death By Trench Collapse, May 19, 2004
• CDC: Trench Collapse Still a Major Problem, May 4, 2004
• Intro to Death By Trench Collapse, January 21, 2004
• This is getting tiresome..., November 29, 2003
• "Just a Horrible Accident", September 18, 2003

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Freedom (for lead poisoning) Is On The March

The Los Angeles Times reported the other day that:

The Environmental Protection Agency has quietly delayed work on completing required rules to protect children and construction workers from exposure to lead-based paint, exploring instead the possibility of using voluntary standards to govern building renovations and remodeling.

Well, isn't that special. Dwight Meredith over at Wampum has distilled the Bush perspective to its essence:

Why would the EPA consider weakening the protections against lead poisoning? They are worried about the cost of the mandatory regulation to business, of course.

EPA officials emphasize that they are concerned about lead exposure and its effect on children. They also point to an internal study showing that the cost of the regulations — $1.7 billion to $3.1 billion annually — could be an overwhelming burden for the mostly small businesses that renovate buildings. However, an agency estimate showed that such rules would provide health benefits of greater value, from $2.7 billion to $4.2 billion annually.

In other words, we can save money by having mandatory standards and we can save children by having mandatory standards, but the administration is balking at doing so because mandatory standards cost contractors some money. Please note that the voluntary standards are just as expensive for any contractor who abides by them. The only purpose in making the standards voluntary is to permit some workers and some kids to continue to be exposed to a known neurotoxin.

Basically, what we have here is avictory of ideology over public health.

Thanks to Susie for the reference.

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An Open Letter To AFL-CIO President John Sweeney On The Elimination of The AFL-CIO Safety and Health Department

As I reported last week, the AFL-CIO has announced the elimination of its safety and health department, the layoff of half of its professional staff, with the rest being folded into the new Government Affairs department.

Now, I’m just a guy with a blog, but I’m also a proud member of the National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981, so I thought AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and UAW President Ron Gettelfinger should know how I feel. I don’t know how many of you who are union members are communicating your feelings to your union leadership, but it probably wouldn’t hurt for them to hear the opinions of a few (thousand) of you. Feel free to plagiarize my letter or anything else you find in Confined Space, but for those of you outside of Washington who are facing real health and safety struggles, your own stories are probably most effective. (Also, I tend to run on a bit; if you're inclined to write, feel free to be shorter.)

John Sweeney
President
AFL-CIO
815 16th St. N.W.
Washington D.C. 20006

Dear President Sweeney:

I am a member of the National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981. I have worked for the past 22 years in occupational safety and health – 16 of which were spent running AFSCME's health and safety program, as well as two years as a consultant and temporary employee in the AFL-CIO Safety and Health Department. I have also spent five years in government, including three as OSHA’s national labor liaison during the Clinton Administration. In my spare time, I write a weblog devoted primarily to workplace safety and labor issues. (Confined Space: http://spewingforth.blogspot.com/, if you’re interested.)

I was very disappointed to hear about the elimination of the AFL-CIO's Safety and Health Department last week, coming just a month after the tragedy at the BP Amoco refinery in Texas City, Texas that killed 15 workers, and only a week after Workers Memorial Day.

I am not writing to ask you to reinstate the AFL-CIO’s Department of Occupational Health and Safety and its full staff. Given the serious problems facing the labor movement today, I am writing to request that you reinstate and expand the department.

First, I completely agree that the first priority of the labor movement must be organizing. In fact, health and safety issues are major reasons that workers join unions. As you have said, one of the biggest challenges facing the labor movement today is making unions relevant to workers -- both to activate current members and, most important, to organize new members who are looking for some good, concrete reasons why they'll be better off if they organize a union and pay dues.

Working conditions, and workplace health and safety concerns can play an important role in almost every organizing campaign and can play a prominent role in political mobilization as well. There is little doubt (and numerous polls have confirmed this) that working conditions – particularly safety and health conditions – are an area of high concern for American workers and one that they look to labor unions to protect. For many members, union resources that are used to train rank and file activists in how to investigate and organize around health and safety issues is a service well worth paying some dues money for. A larger safety and health department could assist affiliates to develop strategic organizing programs focusing on health and safety issues.

Unfortunately, folding what’s left of the safety and health department into Government Affairs leaves the impression that health and safety is just about lobbying Congress, writing testimony and commenting on regulations. While these are certainly important functions for the AFL-CIO (as shown most recently by the current activities around asbestos compensation legislation), they are far from the only function of the AFL-CIO’s safety and health department.

Perhaps the most important function of health and safety departments – either at the AFL-CIO or at the affiliates – is to provide the knowledge, tools and organization that workers can use to defend their rights, their health and their lives when they go to work every day. This support takes a variety of forms that are crucial to maintaining and expanding union membership. The ability to translate local health and safety issues into a larger political context is also important in political mobilization.

It is well known fact that workers are the proverbial canaries in the coal mines: Almost every major workplace health problem was initially discovered by workers (by their illness and death) and their unions, and then brought to the researchers and government regulators. Again, the AFL-CIO has played a crucial role in this process – and more than ever needs the resources to continue to play that role in the future.

I write every day about the health and safety of American workers, how they get hurt, how they die, and what they're doing to fight back. I see them not only dealing with “traditional” workplace safety and health issues (hazardous unregulated chemicals, falls from scaffolding, communicable diseases, trench collapses, amputations, etc.) but they’re also facing growing threats in areas that haven’t been adequately addressed by oversight agencies or by researchers: stress, workplace violence, ergonomics, increased workloads, fewer employees and faster production rates, excessive overtime, short staffing and the exploitation of immigrants.

The “good news” is that the lack of attention to these issues makes them ripe for mobilizing and organizing workers – if the AFL-CIO puts adequate resources into using these issues for organizing and political mobilization.

In addition, the AFL-CIO Safety and Health Department has been the only worker organization in the country addressing workers compensation problems from a national angle, identifying trends, developing effective strategies to fight off attacks and communicating important information to affiliates and state federations. The national fight against the cruel mistreatment of injured workers by failing workers compensation systems has now also fallen victim to this reorganization.

On the national political front, my years at OSHA proved to me that there will never be any movement on a political or regulatory front – even in a Democratic administration -- without constant pressure from labor. Convincing OSHA to issue effective health and safety standards or to enforce the law is no longer a simple process of writing testimony or lobbying Congress or administration officials. To be successful, unions need to organize massive grassroots political action campaigns. It takes coordination from the AFL-CIO and national unions, it involves identifying and organizing the victims of health and safety problems on the local and national level and it takes political action in Washington and in the states. And clearly, this requires adequate staff and resources in Washington to coordinate these activities. Otherwise, how can working people and individual unions working alone be any match for the well funded power of the Chamber of Commerce, NAM, NFIB and other industry associations who have an almost unlimited ability to hire high-priced attorneys, scientists, public relations experts – and legislators. Now, at the time when our members need help the most, we seem to be taking health and safety out of the game, leaving the playing field our enemies.

Look back at the proud history of the American labor movement and everywhere you look, you'll find workplace safety and health concerns. In fact, there is probably no issue more central to the founding of the labor movement in this country than the issue of safety on the job.The history of the Mineworkers, the Steelworkers, the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers and many other unions is also the story of workplace safety. Karen Silkwood died defending the health and safety of her members. The 1968 Memphis sanitation workers strike was sparked by two workplace fatalities. This is not just dead history, but an indication of how health and safety issues can be used to build a new labor movement. What message are we sending to American workers (and the enemies of American workers) if we devalue the importance of the issue upon which the labor movement was founded?

My great fear is that eliminating the AFL-CIO Department of Health and Safety will send the wrong message -- both to American workers and American corporations. Workers will assume that the labor movement no longer cares about their health and safety on the job while the corporate community will assume that we’ve given up the battle. By eliminating the health and safety department and downsizing its staff, it appears as if unions care more about the health of unions than the health of the workers they represent. Both are clearly important, but workers appear to have gotten the short end of this reorganization.

As a long-time union activist, I fully understand that our backs are up against the wall, and I applaud the efforts you are making to turn things around. Health and safety issues can play an important role in this effort, but in order to effectively use health and safety issues to build the labor movement, we need not only strategic leadership and coordination from the AFL-CIO and national unions, but also the capacity and resources to plan and implement these campaigns. The small staff of the AFL-CIO’s Department of Safety and Health have done amazing work over the past decades. Now is the time to expand those activities, not cut them back. To do less than this would be a serious disservice both to workers’ health and safety to our hopes for a stronger labor movement, and to the progress our members have fought and died for.

In solidarity,


Jordan Barab


cc: Ron Gettelfinger, President, UAW
Gerard Colby, President, National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981

Related Stories

• AFL-CIO Kills Health and Safety Department, May 3, 2005
• The New AFL-CIO: Wither Safety and Health?, March 2, 2005
• Workers Memorial Day 2005, April 28, 2005
• Union Health and Safety Programs: Organize and Die?, August 28, 2003
• The Great Debate I: Union Health and Safety Programs vs. Organizing, April 7, 2003

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OSHA: Let's Punish The Bastards (but don't tell anyone)

I'm having trouble figuring out what's going on at OSHA. They're behaving like a little kid with a bad reputation who does something good, but hides it out of embarassment -- or perhaps because he feels like his "friends" will beat him up if they find out he's done something slightly upstanding.

Last month OSHA issued a new directive on Fatality/Catastrophe Investigation Procedures. I didn't find this out by reading an OSHA press release. I discovered it in an article in Occupational Hazards which also notes that

Amid increasing signs that OSHA is ramping up enforcement against what it considers "bad actors," the agency referred a total of 18 cases to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal prosecution during 2003 and 2004, a level not seen since 1990-1991.

A 2-year period is more indicative of trends in OSHA's criminal referral record, because the number often fluctuates greatly from year to year.

The new compliance directive covers all fatality and catastrophe investigations and states that such investigations must be done with extreme care to determine if they can be considered willful, "because of the potential for criminal referral by OSHA/DOL to the Department of Justice." A catastrophe, according to OSHA, is where three or more workers is hospitalized.

A willful violation has occurred when

There is reason to believe that the employer was aware of the requirements of the standard and knew that he was in violation of the standard, or that the employer was plainly indifferent to employee safety.

The directive also notes that

In addition to criminal prosecution under Section 17(e) of the OSH Act, employers may potentially face prosecution under a number of other sections of the United States Code, including, but not limited to:

• Crimes and Criminal Procedures, for actions such as conspiracy, making false statements, fraud, obstruction of justice, and destruction, alteration or falsification of records during a federal investigation
  
  
• The Clean Water Act
  
  
• The Clean Air Act
  
  
• The Resource Recovery and Conservation Act (RCRA)
  
  
• The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)

In fact, this is the same program that David Barstow and Lowell Bergman wrote about last week in the New York Times. The reason it's important to use the environmental laws listed above is that monetary penalties and potential jail time for violation of environmental laws are far stiffer than penalties for willfully violating the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHAct) -- even when it leads to the death of a worker. Under the OSH Act, when a worker is killed, employers can only be charged with a misdemeanor and up to six months in jail, but violating environmental and fraud laws can lead to felony convictions with substantial jail terms.

So are we seeing a major change in the way workplace deaths are prosecuted in this country? That's unlikely. Eighteen prosecutions is certainly better than previous years, but they're only a small fraction of the willful citations involving deaths or multiple injuries that occur every year.

Second, as Occupational Hazards notes,

Although the numbers of criminal referrals is up, it is too soon to tell whether the increase will lead to more convictions. So far, DOJ has handed down indictments in one of the 18 cases and decided not to prosecute eight others; no decision has yet been made on the remaining nine cases, according to information supplied by OSHA. In previous years, DOJ has typically declined to prosecute almost half the cases referred to it by OSHA.

As I've written before, this new program is clearly the result of the embarrassment suffered by OSHA as a result of the two 2003 New York Times series by David Barstow and Lowell Bergman that exposed the failure of OSHA and the Department of Justice to pursue criminal charges against employers who willfully kill their employees.

The odd thing is that OSHA acts almost embarrassed about the new program. As Barstow and Bergman pointed out last week, the administration has been reluctant to publicize its efforts. It cancelled a press conference to announce the program, demoted it from a “Worker Endangerment Initiative” to a “policy decision,” and neither acting OSHA Assistant Secretary Jonathan Snare, nor DOL’s head attorney, Solicitor Howard Radzely would speak to the Times about the program.

As I said above, the new compliance directive just appeared on the OSHA website without any announcement or press release. Given the time of year it appeared, a savvy P.R. person might have thought that the announcement of an aggressive new enforcement program would have made a much better Workers Memorial Day event than the half-assed press release issued by OSHA.

On the contrary, according a mysterious OSHA/DOL employee code-named "Walking Shadow" who left a comment on my article about OSHA's WMD "observance,"

OSHA's National Office took no notice of Worker Memorial Day--there was no message or e-mail from the Secretary or the Acting Assistant Secretary to OSHA staff. 28 April was also the occasion of the Department of Labor's annual honor awards ceremony, but neither Secretary Chao nor anyone else said a word about Worker Memorial Day.

So are they afraid their friends over at the Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers or National Federation of Independent Business will beat them up if they find out OSHA's been acting like a goody-two-shoes by actually making an effort to fulfill some of its mandate?

Or are they afraid that too much talk about the need to use environmental laws to get significant workplace penalties will lead people to ask why we don't just amend the OSH Act to increase penalties so that OSHA doesn't have to wait for an employer to kill fish and birds before he can be effectively punished. That would make too much sense (and ex-exterminator Tom Delay and his friends in Congress probably wouldn't go for it.)

Curious.


Related Stories

• OSHA, Feds Take A Step Toward Real Workplace Penalties
  May 2, 2005
  
• Of Fish and Men, Corporate Penalties And The Law, March 19, 2005
• OSHA To Beef Up Criminal Prosecutions, March 9, 2005
  
• W.R. Grace Execs Indicted For Asbestos Coverup, February 8, 2005
• "You done killed my boy!" December 21, 2003

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Attention AIHA Members: It's All About ME

Attention American Industrial Hygiene Association members. Check out page 76 of the May edition of the Synergist for an article about Confined Space by ME. There's even a sexy picture of ME a sample page of Confined Space.

UPDATE: AIHA has graciously allowed me to post the .pdf here.

"Engineers and conductors sleep on trains. Anyone who tells you different is not being straight with you,"

It's late, I'm tired and I'm still writing. At least I'm not driving a train.

Here we have a story of well-known fatigue problems among workers responsible for carrying the 1.7 million carloads of the nation's hazardous materials every year, and the Association of American Railroads who would rather deny that obvious fatigue issues exist despite clear evidence to the contrary:

When a Union Pacific freight train thundered into tiny Macdona, Texas, just before dawn June 28, the engineer and conductor had clocked more than 60 hours in the previous week, working the long, erratic shifts that are common in the railroad industry.

They flew through a stop signal at 45 mph and slammed into another freight train that was moving onto a side track. No one even touched the brakes.

Chlorine gas from a punctured tank car killed the conductor and two townspeople, while dozens of others suffered breathing problems and burning eyes as the toxic cloud drifted almost 10 miles. Hundreds were evacuated within a 2-mile radius of the accident.

Federal investigators suspect that both of the Union Pacific crewmen had fallen asleep. In the weeks before the crash, each man's work schedule had at least 15 starting times at all hours of the day.

The Macdona crash illustrates a grim fact of life for thousands of engineers, brake operators and conductors who guide giant freight trains across the country: Exhaustion can kill.

Two decades after federal officials identified fatigue as a top safety concern, the problem continues to haunt the railroad industry, especially the largest carriers responsible for moving the vast majority of the nation's rail-borne freight.

"Engineers and conductors sleep on trains. Anyone who tells you different is not being straight with you," said Diz D. Francisco, a veteran engineer and union official who works out of Bakersfield for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp.

I've written about this incident before, but in the context of transporting hazardous cargo. Combined with hazardous material problems (like the train crash that killed nine in South Carolina several months ago), the incidents cited in this article are chilling:

National Transportation Safety Board records show that entire crews have nodded off at the controls of mile-long freight trains weighing 10,000 tons, some of them loaded with hazardous materials.

In a 1984 Wyoming crash, a Burlington Northern engineer had only 6 1/2 hours of sleep in the 48 hours before the accident; his conductor had five hours of sleep.

Outside St. Louis in 2001, a Union Pacific engineer who had been up for 24 hours with only a short nap failed to heed three warning signals and orders to limit his speed before triggering a chain-reaction crash involving two other trains. The wreck injured four and caused $10 million in damage.

A year later, in Des Plaines, Ill., a Union Pacific engineer fighting to stay awake after more than 22 hours without sleep blew past warning signals and broadsided another train, severely injuring two crew members.

After a Chicago & North Western train collision in March 1995, engineer Gerald A. Dittbenner sued the railroad — and received a $500,000 settlement, his lawyers say — over his incessant 12-hour shifts and irregular work schedules.

Dittbenner, 49, misread a stop signal after being awake almost 30 hours and hit the rear of an empty coal train outside Shawnee Junction, Wyo. Seconds before the impact, Dittbenner jumped from the locomotive and broke his neck. Unable to do strenuous work because of persistent pain, he now works as a locksmith in Scottsbluff, Neb.

As happens in so many other accident investigation, the root causes of these problems have been covered by conclusions that essentially blame the worker for falling asleep or "poor judgment, miscommunication and failure to follow operating procedures — errors that experts say can be triggered by fatigue."The root cause of the fatigue is not careless workers, but scheduling problems:

A 1997 survey of more than 1,500 freight crew members by the North American Rail Alertness Partnership — a group of industry, government and union officials — found that about 80% had reported to work while tired, extremely tired or exhausted.

Though fatigue can affect passenger train crews, it is primarily a problem for the 40,000 to 45,000 engineers, brake operators and conductors assigned to unscheduled freight service.

Many put in 60 to 70 hours a week, sometimes more. They can be called to work any time during the day or night, constantly disrupting their sleep patterns.

The irregular shifts often place bleary-eyed crews at the controls between 3 and 6 a.m., when experts say the body's natural circadian rhythm produces maximum drowsiness.

Engineers, brake operators and conductors liken on-the-job fatigue to being in a constant state of jet lag.

"There is no set rest schedule. It changes all the time, and it is hard to adjust," said Doug Armstrong of Huntington Beach, a veteran Union Pacific engineer who often works 12-hour days, six days a week. "People have a normal rest cycle, but a railroad is anything but normal."

And the problem here is antiquated laws, in this case, the 98 year old federal Hours of Service Act. The act requires train operators to have 8 hours off, but that doesn't allow for commuting, family obligations, meals -- as well as adquate sleep. In addition, it's legal for engineers, conductors and brake operators to work 432 hours a month, as opposed to truckers who are allowed to drive no more than 260 hours.

And it seems that no story of workplace -- or community -- hazard is complete without an industry association trying to deny that the problem exists. The Association of American Railroads (AAR), the industry's trade organization and lobbying arm, commissioned a study of the fatigue problem and finding ways to reduce accidents. But the study was canceled in 1998 when it found that "engineers who put in more than 60 hours a week were at least twice as likely to be in an accident as those working 40 hours."

"They did not want this finding," said [the former AAR analyst Donald]Krause, who once studied rail safety for the federal General Accounting Office and is now a business writer living outside Chicago. "The railroads fear it could lead to restrictions on hours and government regulation, which could cost them money. But something needs to be done. One of these days, they are going to wipe out a town."

Association officials say Krause's research was halted because of budget cuts, not out of a desire to bury the conclusions.

Yeah, I'm sure.

Among the reasons for the ARA to not want to see those results:

Hiring has not kept pace with a steady increase in rail freight volumes, about 4.4% a year on average since 1991, federal data show.

Corporate mergers and cost-cutting during the 1990s led to staff reductions. In 2002, a change in pension rules led to 12,000 railroad worker retirements, twice as many as the year before.

Since 1990, overall railroad employment has declined more than 25%. Department of Labor statistics show that, until recently, the hiring of engineers has been flat for years.

There seems to be some dispute about the role of unions. According to the article, rail unions have supported the resulting overtime:

Railroad unions have at times resisted proposed solutions to the fatigue problem if they threatened to limit the freedom of their members to work long hours and maximize earnings. With overtime and high mileage, salaries for engineers can reach $100,000 a year.

"It is a two-edged sword," said Brian Held, 47, a Burlington Northern Santa Fe engineer for 10 years. "The company wants to save money and doesn't hire what it needs to. Union members don't want the boards so full of workers they can't make the money they want. It makes for a dangerous situation."

Although, on the other hand:

In December 2003, Union Pacific unsuccessfully sued a group of unionized conductors alleging that they were taking too much time off during weekends and holidays, disrupting commerce along a major Kansas line in violation of the Railway Labor Act.

The United Transportation Union countered that the railroad was severely understaffed in the area and many conductors were exhausted from working for weeks — sometimes months — without a day off.

"We were running with a skeleton crew," said union official Greg Haskin. "Guys were burned out and calling in sick. They were working 12- to 16-hour days up to 90 days straight. You can't expect people to work like that and be safe."

Union Pacific declined to discuss the case.

In 1999, the NTSB recommended that the Federal Railroad Commission

Establish within 2 years scientifically based hours-of-service regulations that set limits on hours of service, provide predictable work and rest schedules, and consider circadian rhythms and human sleep and restrequirements.

But, of course, we are faced with the usual debate in this administration about whether or not the railroads should be left to voluntary programs to reduce fatigue, or whether there should be regulations.

Guess which side is winning.

The FRA has announced that it

will continue to monitor the results from these various cooperative arrangements and research projects on fatigue and, as the need arises, take relevant regulatory action and/or recommend legislative action.

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Mine Operator Sentenced to Prison

This is more like it:

Coal mine operator sentenced to prison
Safety violations cited in fatal blast in 2003

PIKEVILLE, Ky. -- In a rare move, a federal judge sentenced a former coal mine operator yesterday to 60 days in prison for safety violations that led to an explosion in 2003, killing a miner and injuring two others.

Robert Ratliff Sr., 52, is the first miner convicted of safety violations in Eastern Kentucky sentenced to prison in more than a decade, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Davis Sledd, who prosecuted the case.

The sentence comes after Ratliff's company, Cody Mining, was fined $536,050 last year -- the largest federal penalty ever in Kentucky -- for safety violations related to the explosion.

The penalty is a result of the the June 2003 death of Paul Blair Jr., 21, who was hit by debris from an underground wall during blasting to clear an area for mining. The tunnel where Blair hid was not cut correctly, leaving him and four other miners too close to the explosion. The other miners were injured.

Do Men Make More Money Than Women Because They Do More Dangerous Work?

Ampersand at Alas a Blog shoots down the myth that the wage gap between men and women is due to the "fact" that the wage gap reflects men getting paid more for hazardous jobs or dangerous jobs.

Quoting academic studies and the Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys, Amp concludes that:

The anti-feminist argument that the gender wage gap is (partly or fully) caused by justified higher pay for men who take on riskier work is not true. Evidence shows that taking on risky work isn’t associated with higher pay.

Second conclusion: The widely-shared conservative assumption that the market produces just and fair outcomes is not supported by looking at how the market compensates for risk. Workers who risk their lives often receive very low compensation, and for non-unionized workers they may be paid even less than similar workers in less risky jobs.

Interesing, go read it, as well as the comments.

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WMD Found! Look Over Your Shoulder

This same article about this nation's failure to secure its 15,000 chemical plants, -- 123 of which pose a threat to at least 1 million people -- has been written over and over again every few months since 9/11/2001.

It is the deadliest target in a swath of industrial northern New Jersey that terrorism experts call the most dangerous two miles in America: a chemical plant that processes chlorine gas, so close to Manhattan that the Empire State Building seems to rise up behind its storage tanks.

According to federal Environmental Protection Agency records, the plant poses a potentially lethal threat to 12 million people who live within a 14-mile radius.

Yet on a recent Friday afternoon, it remained loosely guarded and accessible. Dozens of trucks and cars drove by within 100 feet of the tanks. A reporter and photographer drove back and forth for five minutes, snapping photos with a camera the size of a large sidearm, then left without being approached.

That chemical plant is just one of dozens of vulnerable sites between Newark Liberty International Airport and Port Elizabeth, which extends two miles to the east. A Congressional study in 2000 by a former Coast Guard commander deemed it the nation's most enticing environment for terrorists, providing a convenient way to cripple the economy by disrupting major portions of the country's rail lines, oil storage tanks and refineries, pipelines, air traffic, communications networks and highway system.

Port security isn't much better:

As for the ports, the federal Homeland Security Department's inspector general's office recently criticized the agency for directing much of its $517 million in port security money to relatively low-risk sites in places like Kentucky and Tennessee, and not giving enough to busy, vulnerable facilities like Port Newark. Although the Port of New York and New Jersey recently received an additional $42 million for counterterrorism efforts, Port Newark lacks the up-to-date equipment now used to search cargo at ports like Hong Kong.

"We put more resources into securing the average large bank in Manhattan than we do for the entire security of Port Newark," said Stephen Flynn, a former Coast Guard commander who is now a security analyst for the Council on Foreign Relations and who conducted the study that first identified this part of North Jersey as the nation's most terror-prone two miles. "That's just irresponsible."

The problem at chemical plants is that the federal government won't face up to the fact that strong regulations are needed to force the plants to implement more security and less hazardous processes:

A spokeswoman for the [American] Chemistry Council, an industry group representing 150 of the nation's largest chemical plants, said the group's members had already invested $2 billion in improved security and were working with Congress to establish standardized federal safety guidelines.

"We want to work with the Department of Homeland Security and Congress to make these plants safer in a way that works for everyone," Kate McGloon, the spokeswoman, said.

Michelle Petrovich, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said agency officials had visited more than half the nation's 300 most dangerous plants and urged the companies to enhance perimeter security and switch to less hazardous chemicals and processes. As a result, Ms. Petrovich said, she believes North Jersey is "one of the safer areas because it has received the most attention in terms of protective measures."

But Richard A. Falkenrath, a former deputy homeland security adviser to the White House, said that effort has done little to make the public safer. "Saying that you're doing something doesn't mean you're actually making a difference," said Mr. Falkenrath, who recently testified before Congress, urging tighter regulation of the chemical industry.

Since 2001, at least two major efforts to bolster chemical plant security have been stalled, in part by industry lobbyists.

The latest proposal to tighten security at chemical plants, which appears to be gaining support in Congress, would establish safety guidelines. But Senator Jon S. Corzine said that it is only a half measure because it would not mandate that plants in densely populated areas stop using highly dangerous chemicals like chlorine gas and switch to more benign alternatives, like sodium hypochlorite. The plants use such chemicals to make antiseptics for water purification plants.

What's happening is that the American Chemical Council is favoring federal regulatoins that would essentially codify the ACC's voluntary "Responsible Care" security code, which consists of more guns, guards and gates. Environmental organizations (and Senator Corzine's bill) argue that perimeter security will never be perfect (and three and a half years after 9/11, it's not even close), so the answer is to reduce the hazard itself by implementing inherently safer processes wherever possible.

Meanwhile, nothing happens on Capitol Hill, and reporters (and who knows who else) continue to be able to wander unmolested around plants that have the potential to kill millions.

Update: New York Times editorial:

Senator Corzine's persistent efforts to upgrade chemical plant security have been thwarted by the chemical industry and by the Bush administration's lack of support. He is now working on a new bill, in collaboration with Senators Susan Collins and Joseph Lieberman, that is likely to make some concessions to the chemical industry to improve its chances of passage. If Congress and the White House are serious about protecting the nation, they will make sure that his bill becomes law in the strongest possible form. There is an urgent need for greater security at the plant sites. The industry should also be required to replace dangerous chemicals with safer alternatives. These steps may sound like common sense, but they have run into entrenched political opposition. The Bush administration's antiregulatory philosophy makes it reluctant to impose rules on private industry. And the chemical industry, a major campaign donor, seems intent on not spending the money that a strong safety law would cost it. Christie Whitman, the former E.P.A. administrator, became so frustrated by her inability to make any progress that she asked to be relieved of responsibility for chemical plant safety.

Related Articles

• "We can't protect ourselves if we are not part of the plan", February 20, 2005
• NY Chem Company Decides Terrorism Threat Is Over, February 6, 2005
• Department of Homeland Security: Buddy Can You Spare a Dime?, September 27, 2004
• Weapons of Mass Destruction Found -- In Our Backyards, November 17, 2003
• The War for Chemical Plant Safety, May 4, 2003

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Weekly Toll

Burtonsville resident killed in workplace accident in Laurel, Man crushed by falling section of railcar

JEFFERSON, Pa. - A section of a derailed coal car fell onto a worker taking it apart with a torch, crushing him to death, authorities said. John Edward Thompson, 43, of Greenville, was dismantling derailed coal cars with a cutting torch in Jefferson Township, Greene County, when a large piece of one fell on him Saturday morning, state police said.


Cherokee County worker killed in highway accident

Birmingham, AL- A Cherokee County employee was killed this morning when he was hit by a logging truck south of Gaffney. Ronnie Lee Dukes, 43, was standing on the rear platform of a sanitation truck when he was struck and killed on state Highway 18 about 10:30 a.m., county administrator Ben Clary said. The garbage truck was stopped in a blind spot when the logging truck being driven by Jason Smith, 30, of Union, came around a curve, Highway Patrol Lance Cpl. Bryan McDougald said. The truck swerved, striking the left side of the garbage truck and platform where Dukes was standing, McDougald said. The logging truck then hit a car driven by 39-year-old Beverly Davis of Gaffney.


Dolton store manager charged in deadly robbery

Chicago,IL — A Dolton store manager is charged with murder for allegedly plotting an attempted robbery which turned deadly. Dolton police charged Sandrell Allen with robbery and murder. Police say she did not pull the trigger, but she is accused of plotting the robbery which turned deadly. The case is still being investigated. The police chief said the husband of the woman who was shot inside will not be charged because he shot the suspect in self defense. "She had a discussion. She decided that somewhere along the line they were going to rob the store she worked," said Chief Ronald Burge, Dolton Police Department. The gunman, 32-year-old Thomas Perry, Allen's boyfriend, shot the clerk, Tiffany Ellis, who was five months pregnant, twice in the stomach as he tried to rob the store.


Big Cedar worker dies in horse and wagon accident

RIDGEDALE, Mo. – A longtime employee of Big Cedar Lodge died in an accident on Tuesday morning near the stables where she worked. The Taney County coroner says Eileen Beatty died from a broken neck. Beatty cared for horses at resort, which is owned by Bass Pro Shops. Another employee found her body about 9:30 a.m. when they noticed the horses with which she worked weren’t tied up as usual. Coroner Randall Vest says there was no reason to suspect foul play. He says Beatty appears to have fallen while she was trying to corral some horses, which may have become spooked while she was harnessing them to a wagon. Beatty was 49. She lived in Omaha, Ark., about 10 miles south of Big Cedar.


Arkansas plant worker dies of Bromine toxicity; others being tested

Shreveport, LA- 11 plant workers in Arkansas have become ill, and one of them has died. 53-year-old William Atkinson of Magnolia died early Friday morning in a Little Rock Hospital. He was admitted with Bromine toxicity. Atkinson worked for Great Lakes Chemical Corporation in El Dorado, which produces Brominated flame retardants. The other workers also went to the hospital with similar symptoms of burning eyes and nostrils, vomiting and diarrhea. Company officials aren't sure why the employees became ill. There were no signs of chemicals in the air.


Worker found dead after fall from ladder

Charlotte, NC- A man was found dead Monday afternoon after apparently falling from a ladder at a work site in southwestern Charlotte, police said. The man was working on a building in the 9800 block of Southern Pine Boulevard off Arrowood Road when he fell, said Keith Bridges, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police spokesman. A crew from Medic, Mecklenburg County's ambulance service, was called to the scene about 2:15 p.m. about a cardiac arrest. They did not need to transport anyone to the hospital. It was not clear Monday if the fall killed the man or a medical problem killed him first. The man's identity was withheld pending notification of his family, police said.


LAX Police Officer Killed as Stolen Patrol Car Drags Him

Los Angeles, CA- He strikes a hydrant while trying to regain control of the cruiser from the suspect. Authorities arrest a homeless man. Los Angeles International Airport police officer was killed Friday after a pedestrian commandeered his patrol car and dragged him down the road, over a curb and into a fire hydrant. Authorities allege that 46-year-old William Sadowski, a transient known to live in Venice, crashed the cruiser and then hijacked a passing SUV, which he maneuvered over a security gate and onto airport property. Officer Tommy Scott's death is the first in the 59-year history of the close-knit airport Police Department, which patrols the sprawling facility. Colleagues described Scott as a friendly person who relished helping passengers navigate the airport.


Stillwater electrician fatally crushed in Nye mine

Billings, MT- A 52-year-old electrician was killed about 10 p.m. Thursday at Stillwater Mining Co.'s Nye mine while working underground on ventilation air doors. The company said Cody Mathewson, an electrician with 30 years of experience in underground mining, was fatally injured while working in an area just off a main shaft in the mine. He was working on some air doors and he was crushed," said Brad Shorey, president of the Local 8-0001 Paper, Allied Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International. "We know what happened, we just don't know how."


Silo worker dies under 20 feet of grain

Brownsville, Texas— A 29-year-old man has died after he was buried by more than 20 feet of grain in a silo at the Port of Brownsville. The accident happened as workers worked atop a large pile of grain, loading it onto a conveyor belt that leads to the top of a silo. Two other men were injured in the incident. "He sank into it like quicksand," Port of Brownsville Police Chief George Gavito said of the dead man, whom he would not identify pending notification of relatives. "The other man fell in, but did not go as deep." It took rescue workers 45 minutes to find the dead man's body, Gavito said.

This is the second death at the port this month and the third death in 16 months.


Crane operator saved ground crew

Naples, FL- As the crane involved in a fatal accident on Sanibel Causeway began to lurch Monday afternoon, its operator swung the listing machine to the right, away from a ground crew working nearby, according to a report released by the Lee County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday. Kent A. Crappell, 54, of Morgan City, La., died shortly after, having been thrown from the crane's cab. Another worker, John T. Collins, 57, of Carrabelle, who had been on board a barge struck by the crane's boom, was injured. Sheriff's Office spokesman Larry King said after an initial investigation conducted with the U.S. Coast Guard, deputies believe what happened was accidental, though they're awaiting the report by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. That could take as long as six months to complete, according to Lee County officials. Work on the phase of the project where the accident happened may be delayed as long as a month, according to the county transportation department.


Wounded Pittsburg Police Officer Dies

Pittsburg, Calif. -- Officer Larry Lasater Shot While Pursuing Armed Robbery Suspects. A Pittsburg police officer who was shot in the line of duty over the weekend has died, officials at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek confirmed early Tuesday. Officer Larry Lasater, 36, was shot twice Saturday night. He and another officer were pursuing two people suspected of holding up a cashier at a Raley's store on Buchanan Road, as well as a Wells Fargo bank branch inside the store.


Second man shot to death in a cab this month

St Louis, MO- A man was shot to death early toay in a cab at nearly the same spot in the Walnut Park neighborhood where a student from Lithuania was killed on Friday, St. Louis police said. Homicide detectives say the incidents may be drug related, and ballistics tests are being conducted to determine if the same semi-automatice weapon was used in both shootings. In the most recent shooting, the body of Ernest Harper, 49, was found in a Chesterfield Taxi and Cab shortly before 2 a.m. Harper was shot in the 4900 block of Beacon and apparently tried to drive off because the cab had come to rest against a porch in the 5000 block of Beacon Avenue, near Lillian Avenue. Several bullets had been fired into the driver's side of the cab. About 5:30 a.m. Friday, the body of Julius Backys, 21, was found in his car in the 4900 block of Beacon. Backys, a Lithuanian, was a student at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He had been shot to death.


Burtonsville resident killed in workplace accident in Laurel

Laurel, MD- A Burtonsville man has died in Laurel after the embroidery machine he was trying to move crushed him, police said. Police are waiting to release the name of the 59-year-old man, until his family has been notified, said Laurel police Lt. Rich McLaughlin. An employee returned from lunch Aril 24 and found the man pinned under the machine at O.K. Embroidery in the 300 block of Main Street. "Apparently he was trying to move an embroidery machine, which we estimate to weigh in excess of 2,000 pounds," McLaughlin said. Police got the call at about 11:45 a.m., McLaughlin said. The employees had been trying to move the machine using jacks to lift it, said police spokesman Jim Collins.


Riverhead Ambulance Corps Shaken by Deaths of 2 Volunteers After Crash Into Tree

Riverhead, NY -- The deaths of two ambulance volunteers from Long Island, killed on Tuesday when the ambulance in which they were carrying a patient crashed into a tree, have torn a jagged hole through the close-knit Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

Fellow volunteers rushed to the crash scene on Route 25 shortly after the 1:34 p.m. accident. Hours later, they were still stopping by, crying and hugging one another, as the police gathered evidence near the demolished ambulance. That night, they and their families thronged to the Osborn Avenue ambulance barn and watched mournfully, many holding hands, as a cherry picker was used to drape black bunting over the front of the building.

They spent yesterday there, too. "We're all together, trying to get our bearings, trying to stick close so we can support each other," Kim Wilkinson, a captain, said.

The corps, which has about 100 volunteers, responds to 2,500 calls a year. It was founded in 1978 and had never lost a member before this week, she said. The deaths of Heidi Behr, 23, and William Stone, 30, will leave an enormous gap, she added.

Hyatt employee dies after being electrocuted

Dededo,Guam, USA- A 32-year-old man died as a result of being electrocuted on Saturday. Guam Fire Department medics responded to the Hyatt Regency in Tumon after receiving a call of a possible electrocution late yesterday afternoon. GFD spokesperson Phyllis Blas says the Hyatt employee grabbed a conduit for unknown reasons. The man was found lying on the ground and was believed to have been down for about twenty minutes prior to medics transporting him to the Guam Memorial Hospital in Tamuning. Blas says CPR was given en route to the hospital, and GMH nursing supervisor Bill Toves tells KUAM News that the victim was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after arrival to the Emergency Room. The cause of death won't be made official until the autopsy is performed by medical examiner Dr. Aurelio Espinola. Authorities are not releasing the man's name pending notification of his family. Representatives from the Hyatt did not return our request for comment.


One killed and one injured in industrial accident

Adel, Ga. - One man was killed and another injured Tuesday evening during the construction of a south Georgia feed mill, police said. Workers were erecting precast concrete panels when one toppled, killing one of the workers and pinning the other, police said. The $96 million feed mill was being built by Sanderson Farms, a major supplier of poultry products for consumers and restaurants. Police declined to identify the workers pending notification of relatives. The accident was being investigated by the Adel Police Department, the Cook County Sheriff's Department and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.


Police: Two fatally shot in Garden Grove parking lot

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. - Two people were fatally shot early Saturday in the parking lot of the Korea Times in what police said appeared to be a murder-suicide. The two men were inside a parked vehicle when people walking by at around 3 a.m. reported hearing three shots coming from the vehicle, said Garden Grove police Sgt. Cole Grove. Cole said investigators suspect one of the men was a newspaper employee and shot the other victim before turning the gun on himself. Police said they believed a financial dispute was the motive for the shooting. James Bang, an attorney for the paper, said the alleged assailant was an independent contractor who delivered papers for the Korea Times, and that the victim was his employee. Korea Times Orange County bureau editor Tae Gi Moon identified the private contractor as Suk Joo Choe of Garden Grove, according to the Orange County Register. Choe runs the Orange Delivery Service and has delivered newspapers for the Korea Times for seven years, the newspaper reported. The independent contractor sustained a gunshot wound and was still alive when police found him. He was rushed by emergency crews to University of California, Irvine Medical Center, where he later died. The employee was found dead at the scene.


Steel worker dies in accident

Roanoke,VA- Christopher Hemstock was working on an overhead bridge crane, but no details about the accident were available. A Roanoke Electric Steel employee died Saturday afternoon in an accident at the plant. Christopher Hemstock, 35, of Venton, was conducting routine maintenance on an overhead bridge crane when the accident occurred shortly before 1:50 p.m., Roanoke Electric Steel spokesman John Lambert said in a news release. A company emergency medical technician and Roanoke Fire-EMS tried to revive Hemstock, but he was pronounced dead at 2:45 p.m., the release said.


Wheatland worker dies in tractor flip

Marysville,CA- A Wheatland man died Saturday after a farm tractor rolled on top of him near Wheatland, according to the California Highway Patrol. Before the accident, Jamie Enrique Cecena Estrada, 35, was driving southbound along Oakley Lane near Dairy Road at an unknown speed at about 7:30 a.m. According to a preliminary investigation, Estrada was an employee of the Whitney Warren Ranch, said Sgt. Scott Klocker. For unknown reasons, Estrada's right side tires went off the right shoulder of the road. The tractor continued down into a ditch and flipped atop Estrada, pinning him, according to Klocker.


2nd man dies after manure accident

ANDOVER, Iowa — The young farmhand who tried to rescue a Clinton County farmer overcome by manure pit gases has died, too. Justin P. Faur, 23, of Teeds Grove, died Saturday at University Hospitals in Iowa City, more than a week after the April 20 death of cattle farmer Dwight Johnson, 52, of Andover. Faur called the 911 emergency phone number and then jumped into an underground manure pit April 16 to rescue Johnson, who neighbors believe went in to retrieve a chain before it got wrapped up in a pump on the Andover farm.Steel plant employee died of electrocution.


A worker was critically injured Monday afternoon after being pinned by large granite slabs at a business in the city’s Westfield section.

MIDDLETOWN -- Emergency personnel were called out at approximately 2:02 p.m. to Ferazzoli Imports of New England in the Galleria Design Center at 234 Middle St., according to reports. Middletown Police were called out to investigate the industrial accident in which an employee was injured by large pieces of granite. A 42-year-old male employee was working in a container outside, and he was moving out a bundle of granite slabs, Middletown Police Capt. Christopher Barrow, detective division commander, said. At that time, a bundle of granite slabs slipped and fell, pinning the worker the worker across the chest, Barrow said.


Worker crushed to death in N. Bellport

Long Island, NY- A mold weighing close to 1,000 pounds fell from a forklift yesterday and killed a worker at a North Bellport cement products company, Suffolk County police said. "This is just a tragic accident," homicide squad Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick said. Fitzpatrick said the worker was one of five employees at the Corinthian Cast Stone company on Station Road at 1:45 p.m. when the mold fell, crushing him. He was pronounced dead at the scene. His body was taken to the Suffolk County medical examiner's office.


Boxes crush worker, Man dies at recycling plant

ORANGE CITY, FL -- A 35-year-old man died Tuesday afternoon at a landfill when a bale of cardboard and paper fell off a forklift and crushed him, officials said. Pascual Hernandez was on break eating lunch in the recycling center of GEL Corp. when the bundle toppled over, Orange City spokeswoman Linda White said. The bale weighed between 1,600 and 2,000 pounds, she said.


Valley farm worker killed by falling hay bales

Phoenix,AZ- A farm worker was killed Tuesday near Tonopah when one-ton bales of hay being unloaded from a truck fell and crushed him, authorities said. The accident occurred at an alfalfa field near 387th and Orangewoods avenues in the far west Valley, said Lt. Joe Blake, a spokesman for the Tonopah Valley Fire District.


Regions cited in scalding, State finds three violations in hospital technician's death

ST Paul, MN- A walk-in washer that fatally scalded an employee of Regions Hospital last fall violated three safety standards, according to Minnesota's workplace safety agency. The washer should have had an escape route or panic bar, should have had an accessible off switch, and shouldn't have been able to activate while a worker was trapped inside, according to citations issued by the state's Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The agency fined Regions $75,000 for the three "serious" violations, which were made public Monday. Regions has appealed the citations and the fine. The amount represents $25,000 for each violation, the minimum allowed for serious citations directly resulting from a work-related fatality. It is among the largest fines the agency has issued in recent years. Minnesota OSHA will now try to negotiate a settlement with the hospital, said spokesman James Honerman. If that fails, the agency will give the results of the investigation to the attorney general's office for further action, he said. The investigation started after a Nov. 4, 2004 accident in which Tracy Kraling, 31, became trapped in the washer while it was running. The research technician was working alone.


Gruesome end for man killed in wood chipper

New Windso, NY – An immigrant from Guatemala working for a tree-cutting service was sucked into a wood chipper and killed yesterday.

Police identified the victim as Julio Hernandez, 42, of Highland Mills, an employee of Timber Care Tree Service, based in Campbell Hall.

Supervisor George Meyers said the owner of the tree service and Hernandez were clearing land behind the home. The owner was up in a tree chopping off limbs and dropping them to Hernandez below, who was putting them into a commercial wood chipper.

When the owner heard the wood chipper stop operating, he climbed down to investigate. He found a gruesome scene – one of Hernandez's hands was sticking out of the machine.

"His whole body got stuck in the machine," Meyers said.


Worker Found Dead At Washington Oil Refinery

BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- A maintenance worker was found dead inside a tower at the BP oil refinery near Ferndale in Northwest Washington. A spokesman says the man had been pressure washing, and the body was found by another worker about midnight. The victim is identified as 58-year-old Nick Karuza of Blaine. He was an employee of Cascade Refinery Services. The cause of death is not immediately available. The Whatcom County sheriff and medical examiner offices and the state Department of Labor and Industries are investigating.


Pizza driver beaten to death while delivering pizza

LONDON, Ky. - A Magoffin County man has been charged with killing a pizza deliveryman by beating him with a baseball bat.

Police said Christopher Neal Wages, 25, attacked Gregory W. Rowe Tuesday night as Rowe was bringing a pizza to a camper in the community of Pittsburg, north of London in Laurel County. Rowe, 36, of London, was a driver for Papa John's Pizza in London.

Wages, of Salyersville, was charged Wednesday morning with murder and robbery.

Rowe died at the scene around 10 p.m. Tuesday as a result of the beating, said Det. Johnny Phelps of the Laurel County Sheriff's Office.

Phelps said Wages attacked Rowe to rob him.


One dead, one critical after shooting on Harwin

Houston,TX- A southwest Houston banquet hall was the scene of a deadly shooting overnight. It happened in the 6600 block of Harwin. Two employees went to the Pavillion to drop some equipment off at 11 p.m. Tuesday. When they went inside, they found two fellow employees had been shot. One of the victims had been shot twice in the back and was dead. The other employee suffered a gunshot wound to the eye and was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Police are questioning the owner and some other employees to determine more about who might have shot the two people, and why.


I-80 tire repair turns deadly - Freak accident kills local man

Grass Valley, CA- A Grass Valley tire technician died this week when a big-rig tire exploded while he was installing it along Interstate 80. Les Schwab Tire Center employee Richard Riley, 24, had been called out Monday morning to replace the tire on a truck that had a flat on Interstate 80, near Gold Run. Riley was killed on impact, according to the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration.


Man killed in welding accident

UXBRIDGE, MA -- A 21-year-old Whitinsville man is dead after a welding accident inside a tanker truck yesterday, police said. George Couillard was pronounced dead at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, where he was taken by medical helicopter for his injuries, Uxbridge Police Chief Scott Freitas said. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is now investigating, Freitas said. Couillard was working in a tanker truck at Allen W. Welding on North Main Street when something went wrong shortly after 1:30 p.m., Freitas said. He believes the accident may have been caused by pressure, not a fire explosion. Firefighters had to cut out a spot on the side to remove Couillard, Freitas said. No further information was available last night.


Window washer's death ruled accident

NY- A man washing windows at a Dauphin County office building lost his footing and accidentally hanged himself with his safety harness, authorities said. Bernard Johnson, 53, of Franklin Avenue, Susquehanna Twp., died after a safety rope wrapped around his neck Monday morning, leaving him dangling from the side of the Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania building, authorities said. His coworkers lowered him to the ground.


Man kills co-worker, self in office building

Denton,TX- Police investigating a murder-suicide at an oil-equipment company said Friday they still don't know why a patent lawyer decided to kill a co-worker and then himself. Police identified the gunman Friday as Jackie Lee Duke, 52, of Houston. He was working for Cameron, a division of Cooper Cameron, on contract as a patent lawyer. He had once been a full-time employee of the company that makes equipment for oil exploration. The victim was identified as Michael Paul Hartmann, 54, of Ingleside, near Corpus Christi. Hartmann, also a patent lawyer, was a full-time employee of Cameron, police said.


Two Suspects Arrested in Murder of Liquor Store Owner

Los Angeles, CA -- The Los Angeles Police Department's Newton Homicide detectives arrested two men yesterday, April 26, 2005, in connection with the robbery-murder of Sang Yum Kim at the Kimbo Liquor Store.

The arrests were made after a tip to police led them to Larry Stewart, 45, and Amfryan Swasey, 57, both residents of Los Angeles. A search warrant at one suspect's residence resulted in the seizure of evidence that tied the suspect to the victim. Both suspects were booked for murder.

Police officers answering a radio call on April 24, 2005, had found the victim in his store at 1:30 p.m. He had been working alone. While it was initially reported that the victim had been shot, the coroner's autopsy showed the victim had died from blunt force trauma over his body. The victim sustained no gunshot wounds. The victim's gray Dodge van was stolen from the liquor store and found the next day by police in South Los Angeles.


Minnesotans react to shooting death of St. Paul officer

St. Paul, MN - Minnesotans react to the fatal shooting of St. Paul police Sgt. Gerald Vick, a decorated officer who was killed early Friday: "This is a grim day. It's a day that the lights of one of the great heroes have gone out." St. Paul police Chief John Harrington.


Authorities investigate fatal train-cement truck accident

WOODBINE, Iowa -- Harrison County authorities are investigating a fatal cement truck and train crash that left the truck driver dead and a railroad employee with minor injuries. 74-year-old Wilfred Buter, of Dunlap, was driving the cement truck and was killed in the accident, which happened about 11:50 a.m. today (Friday) about three miles northeast of Woodbine. That's according to Harrison County Sheriff Terry Baxter. Baxter says a southbound Union Pacific train struck the cement truck Buter was driving as it crossed the railroad trucks. Buter was pronounced dead at the scene. A railroad employee who was in the cab of the train at the time of the crash and was transported to Missouri Valley Hospital and was treated for minor injures.


Man crushed by machinery at Gresham brickyard

GRESHAM, OR -- William Dee Lanus, a maintenance worker, is killed while checking repairs at Mutual Materials Co. A 55-year-old Cornelius man was killed Thursday morning at a Gresham brickyard when his head was crushed by a piece of machinery, officials said. William Dee Lanus, a maintenance worker at Mutual Materials Co., was pronounced dead shortly after 8 a.m. at the plant at 2300 Hogan Road. Lanus was underneath a platform where most of the moving parts for a brick-moving machine were located, said Rob Boggs, chief deputy medical examiner for Multnomah County. He was checking a previously repaired part of the machine when the accident occurred.


Berrien County farmer killed by tractor

Berrien County, MI - An elderly farmer is dead after his tractor rolled on top of him. The Berrien County sheriff tells NewsCenter 16, the victim is 82-year-old Herman Klug. He was apparently working on his tractor off Bailey Road in Eau Claire. Police say the tractor rolled back on him and pinned him underneath. He was found at least an hour later and pronounced dead at the scene.


Worker dies as pond water surges through storm drain system

CHARLOTTE COUNTY, FL -- A man working in an underground drainage system was killed Friday when a piece of safety equipment failed, allowing thousands of gallons of water to rush into the pipe and trap him. After an hourlong search through a maze of muddy, debris-filled pipes, rescuers recovered the body of Carmen Villafuerte, 33, of DeSoto County.


Station manager died of gunshot wounds

Salem, OR- A man whose body was found Thursday morning at a Lancaster Drive gas station died of gunshot wounds to the head, the Marion County District Attorney's Office said Friday. The victim, Howard Edward Culver, 56, of Aumsville, was the manager of the 76 station at 102 Lancaster Drive NE. Culver's slaying was the first reported homicide in Salem this year. The station remained closed Friday afternoon, crime-scene tape still wrapped around the gas pumps with a second layer of tape around the perimeter of the lot.


Construction worker killed in accident

NC- A 40-year-old construction worker was killed Thursday morning in an accident at old Suffolk High School, now being renovated to house the $21 million Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts. Robert Simon of Jarvisburg, N.C., died from injuries suffered in a 35-foot fall from scaffolding attached to the rear of the building at Saratoga and Clay streets downtown, according to Lt. D. J. George of the Suffolk Police.


Highway worker killed in Charles County

Gaithersburg, MD- A Maryland State Highway Administration contractor was killed Thursday morning when she was struck and killed by two motorists on Route 5 in Bryantown. Maryland State Police said Jennifer M. Martz, 31, of Boonsboro was hit once by a sport-utility vehicle as she was removing a construction sign from the northbound lanes and struck again by a car as she was lying in the roadway.


Clerk killed in city robbery

Richmond, VA-Richmond police are looking for two males they believe fatally shot a clerk during a robbery last night at a service station on Brook Road. Details were sketchy, but police said a 53-year-old employee of the Exxon station in the 5000 block of Brook Road was found shot to death about 11:45 p.m. He was identified this morning as Robert Lamont Rush, of Richmond.


Two employees of N.C.-based contractor killed in Iraq blast

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two American security contractors were killed after two explosives-laden cars plowed into a security convoy in the heart of Baghdad, their North Carolina-based employer said Sunday. The attack came a day before Iraq's parliament approved six Cabinet nominees, taking the country a step closer to completing its first democratically elected government. The Saturday explosion killed at least 22 people, leaving a busy traffic circle strewn with burning vehicles and mutilated bodies. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the group detonated a booby-trapped car as a "convoy of CIA passed." The claim in a statement posted on an Islamic Web site couldn't be verified. The U.S. Embassy said two suicide car bombers were involved in the attack in Tahrir Square, which also injured at least 36 Iraqis, including children from two nearby schools, three Americans, an Australian and an Icelander. The two dead Americans were employed by CTU Consulting, a Fayetteville, N.C.,-based security consulting firm. Another North Carolina firm, Blackwater Security of Moyock, also employs security contractors in Iraq. CTU issued a statement identifying the victims as Brandon Thomas and Todd Venette, but did not say where they were from in the United States.


NAPA Road worker dies in roller accident

Napa, CA-- A 20-year-old street construction worker was killed Saturday in Napa when he was run over by a resurfacing vehicle. Police said Christopher David Meeks of Escalon (San Joaquin County) had been working on a resurfacing project at Foothill Boulevard and Elm Street at 9:15 a.m. when a fellow worker driving a rubber-wheeled roller ran over him. The victim, an employee of Western State Surfacing in Modesto, sustained major upper body injuries.



Trucker killed while loading posts

WHITEHALL, MT - A bundle of wooden fence posts fell from a semitrailer, killing a North Dakota man who was loading his truck at a post and pole plant west of here, Jefferson County authorities said Wednesday.

Arthur A. Rabe, 52, of Dickinson, N.D., was struck by the posts Tuesday morning and died at the scene, said Deputy Sheriff Topper Giono.


Man Charged in Rancher's Death

Hidalgo County, TX -- A man who said he was shooting at stray cats has been charged with manslaughter in the death of a man shot while herding his sheep and goats.

Benito Casarez of Monte Christo surrendered to police after his attorneys learned a warrant had been issued for his arrest.

Hidalgo County deputies found the body of Miguel Arcangel Garcia, 71, late Sunday afternoon. Deputies found a weapon on Casarez and confiscated it, telling him to come to the Sheriff's Department to reclaim it.


Clerk is killed in heist at store

FORT WORTH, TX - Syed Karim often took little surprises home from work for his 1-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son, a co-worker said.

Thursday morning, Karim didn't make it home.

He was fatally shot late Wednesday by one of two masked robbers at Terry's Food Mart in far south Fort Worth.

"There was no apparent reason, other than he may not have had as much money as they wanted," homicide Sgt. J.D. Thornton said.

Karim, a Euless father of two, was working in the store at 5500 Hemphill St. about 10:40 p.m. when two men approached and demanded money. He "had complied with the demand and even removed the till from the cash register and placed it on the couClerk is killed in heist at storenter," Thornton said.

But the robbers wanted more, police said. Karim was shot in the abdomen after telling the robbers he had no more.


Man killed by beam at construction site

ROANOKE, TX -- A 23-year-old man died Wednesday when a falling beam struck him in the head at a construction site, officials said. Felipe Yescas of Dallas was helping build the framework on a recreation center in the 500 block of Roanoke Road when the beam came loose about 1:45 p.m., police said. Paramedics were unable to revive him. Preliminary investigation indicates his death was an accident, but representatives of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are looking into the matter. The Durango, Mexico, native is survived by a son, who lives with Yescas' mother and sister.


Officer and suspect killed in Atlanta shootout

ATLANTA, GA — An Atlanta narcotics officer and a suspect were killed during a shootout in southwest Atlanta Saturday night, police said.

Officer Mark Cross, 31, died from a gunshot wound to the head, said Atlanta police Sgt. John Quigley.

Cross and two other members of the city’s Red Dog unit, which focuses primarily on narcotics activity, pulled over a car on Lexington Avenue, and as Cross approached the car, the 19-year-old driver, Brandon Williams, began shooting, Quigley said.


Denver Police Detective Shot, Killed

DENVER, CO -- A decorated Denver police officer was shot and killed early Sunday morning. The incident happened while Detective Donald R. Young was working in an off-duty capacity.

Police described the suspect as being Hispanic with very short hair, a thin moustache, "lightly heavy set wearing white shirt with sleeves down to the elbows and either Kaki or light brown pants," between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-10 and "possibly in his mid 20s."

The incident happened at about 1 a.m. at 1733 W. Mississippi at a hall that is rented out for private functions called Solano Ocampo.

According to police, Young and another officer who was also working off-duty were monitoring a crowd of people when the suspect fired at them from behind. Neither officer was able to return fire, and two other officer nearby ran to the scene and saw a "male suspect fleeing the area armed with what appeared to be a weapon."


Worker trapped in Portage hopper, dies

PORTAGE, IN – A worker died Friday after he was trapped in a hopper he was cleaning at Beta Steel, fire officials said.

Portage fire officials did not immediately release the name of the 45-year-old man, who was a subcontractor for Eagle Service Corp.

Portage Assistant Fire Chief Ray Blazek said the man was inside the 30-foot-tall hopper cleaning it when he was partially buried in fine, dustlike material that was stirred up inside.


Window Washer, 68, Falls to Death as His Harness Snaps 9 Stories Up

A window washer whose harness gave way nine stories above a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk tumbled to his death yesterday morning from the window of a residential building.

The police identified the man as Joel Gillum, 68, and said he died later at a Manhattan hospital.

Witnesses said the accident occurred about 10:15 a.m., shortly after the man had climbed out of a ninth-story window at 430 East 57th Street in Sutton Place. As he leaned back to clean the window panes, they said, his leather straps snapped, causing him to plunge backward. Paramedics arrived about four minutes later and tried to revive the victim, who appeared to be dead, witnesses said.