Gold Kist: Bad To The Bone

You can tell when a company really doesn't respect its workers. Not only will they fight their employees' attempts to gain a voice in the workplace (a union), but they'll also tend to neglect workers' health and safety.

One example is Gold Kist, of which I've written a couple of times, first when the company fought workers compensation for employees injured in their South Carolina plant because management suddenly discovered -- after the injuries -- that they were undocumented immigrants.

Then there's Gold Kist's plant in Russellville, Alabama, which is fighting a United Food and Commercial Workers organizing campaign (and where the company told a worker to go home and take an ibuprofin after she broke her ankle so badly that the bone was sticking through her sock. They told her it was her fault and even refused to pay for her broken glasses.)

Now OSHA is catching up to Gold Kist's shenanigans. The agency fined the same Gold Kist Russellville plant $143,000 "for allegedly exposing workers to hazards at its Russellville, Ala., poultry processing plant that included blocked exits and unsafe floor conditions."

Occupational Health and Safety magazine notes that:

Safety professionals and others who remember the Sept. 3, 1991, inferno at a chicken processing plant in Hamlet, N.C., where 25 workers died and 54 were injured, may be chilled by an enforcement case OSHA announced yesterday....OSHA offers a Poultry Processing Industry eTool on fire safety that opens with a discussion of the problems at the Imperial Food Products Inc. plant in Hamlet.

According to the OSHA press release:

"Failing to comply with required safety procedures puts workers at unnecessary risk," said Roberto Sanchez, OSHA's area director in Birmingham, Ala. "When employers shirk their responsibility to keep workplaces free of hazards, the results can be tragic for workers and their families."

OSHA issued 21 serious safety citations with proposed penalties of $90,000. The citations were associated with blocked and improperly marked exits; unsafe floor conditions; inadequate personal protective equipment; insufficient machine guarding; and numerous other safety hazards. Serious citations are issued when there is a substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result, and that the employer knew or should have known of the hazards.

The company also received two repeat violations with penalties totaling $50,000 for failure to keep conveyor belt work areas free from fall hazards and other unsafe conditions.

Miners Still Getting Black Lung: "This Shouldn't Be Happening"

It's been well over 100 years since Congress first told mine companies to limit coal dust in mines and four decades since the first efforts were made to reduce the incidence of Black Lung.

But a NIOSH report last week revealed that

a greater proportion of miners in Eastern Kentucky and western Virginia suffer from severe cases of black lung than elsewhere in the nation, a federal study shows.

And they are getting it at an earlier age.

***

"This shouldn't be happening," said Dr. Vinicius Antao, lead researcher on an October 2005 study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

The study found a concentration of severe black lung cases among active miners in six states: Kentucky, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Alabama and Colorado.

What's going on?

Antao said his research hasn't identified the reason, but his two theories are excessive dust levels or a more toxic type of coal mined in the region.

Although the percentages of severe and progressive black lung cases seem small, they indicate "inadequate prevention measures in specific regions," Antao's study states.

Retired miner George Massey, 53, of Benham, Ky., said he's not surprised by the findings.

"The main objective of the companies is to get as much coal as they can," he said. "Some will mine without water and without ventilation. You're gonna suck up everything you can get."

The Louisville Courier Journal agrees and adds some more possible reasons:

The existing coal dust limit of two milligrams per cubic meter isn't low enough. After all, as far back as 1995 NIOSH recommended a figure of one milligram per cubic meter.

In addition, the recent NIOSH findings seem to confirm safety advocates' familiar claims that the kind of small, non-union operation so prevalent in Eastern Kentucky just doesn't follow the rules.

Curtains may not be hung to direct fresh air where it's needed most.

Dust suppression water spray devices may not be fixed immediately when they break down.

Pre-shift and on-shift inspections may not document these problems, so they can be quickly corrected.

In such mines, the culture of production is stronger than the culture of safety.

The bottom line, according to the Journal, is that more aggressive government action is needed:

The latest NIOSH black lung study argues strongly for progress on all fronts: tougher dust standards, better industry practices and improved technology.

But none of that will materialize, absent a commitment from top federal and state regulators to increased oversight and stiffer penalties. That's an old story, too.

Tragic and Wierd

OSHA's Hazard Communication (Right To Know) Standard requires all chemicals used in the workplace to be clearly labeled. This is one reason:

Rifle man dies after accidental worksite poisoning

By Chad Abraham
August 17, 2006

A metalworker died Aug. 6, two days after accidentally ingesting a highly toxic liquid he thought was an energy drink at an Old Snowmass work site.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the job-site safety practices of Pitkin Iron, the Glenwood Springs company where Frank Gabossi III worked.

Gabossi, a longtime resident of Rifle, was 53. On Friday, Aug. 4, he and a colleague went to a home on Snowmass Creek Road to work on a metal staircase, said Ron Ryan, investigator at the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office.

Around noon, Gabossi walked back to their truck and picked up a Gatorade bottle containing Antique Black. The bottle still had the drink label on it, and it was not marked as containing the agent, used to age metal. The substance, which is bright blue, contains selenous acid, which is highly corrosive and for which there is no antidote, Ryan said.

Gabossi apparently swallowed half a mouthful before spitting out the other half. He immediately knew what had happened and told his co-worker, who drove him to Valley View Hospital. He was airlifted to St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, where he died.

Gabossi's death is considered an accident, and no criminal charges are planned, Ryan said.

The men put the liquid into the smaller bottle for convenience; it is usually stored in five-gallon drums on the grounds of the Glenwood company.

And on a slightly lighter note:

Worker trapped in vat of chocolate

KENOSHA, Wis., Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Darmin Garcia, an employee at a Wisconsin factory that makes premium chocolate, got too much of a good thing when he slipped into a vat of the stuff.

Garcia spent more than two hours chest deep in a vat of dark chocolate at the DeBellis factory in Kenosha, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported.

"It was in my hair, in my ears, my mouth, everywhere," Garcia said. "I felt like I weighed 900 pounds. I couldn't move."

In addition to being weighted down, Garcia was also hot -- since the temperature in the vat was 110 degrees, several degrees hotter than a Jacuzzi.

Garcia's fellow workers tried to pull him out but his clothes were stuck on a roller and liquid chocolate has a consistency something like quicksand. After the workers added cocoa butter to the vat to thin the mixture, firefighters scooped enough out so Garcia could be freed.

Race To The Bottom: Anti-Union Organization Says Drag Public Employees Down

When it comes to new projects by Richard Berman's anti-union Center or Union "Facts" (sic), I'm always torn between giving them more publicity, versus truth telling -- a bit of comic relief for my readers.

Berman, who we've written about before, is (in)famous for flacking corporate America's arguments in favor of drunk driving, eating plenty of mercury in fish, paying low wages and killing people with tobacco and obesity, has now turned his attention to ensuring that workers return to those thrilling days of yesteryear when bosses were bosses and workers were slaves.

Berman's latest target is public employees -- Michigan and Oregon public employees to be specific. His Oregon advertisement is odd, however. Check it out:

Thanks to lobbying by government employee union bosses and the contracts they hammer out, Oregon's public employees often work under conditions that most private-sector taxpayers would envy. Typical employment includes:

12-26 days of vacation, based on seniority

8 hours of sick leave per month

Up to 18 hours of personal leave each year

Nine paid holidays

Benefit dollars to spend on medical and dental insurance, and life insurance for employee and/or dependents

Membership in the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS)

What message do you take from this?

a) "those damn public employees, wasting my tax dollars, or

b) "sounds good to me. Where do I sign up?"

Berman is clearly banking on (a).

Of course, we've seen these attacks on unionized public employees before -- most recently during the New York Transit workers strike last December when Stephen Malanga, writing in the Wall St. Journal, attacked the "porcine" benefits earned by NY public employees -- outrages like fully paid health care, pensions and decent wages -- the same benefits that most American manufacturing and industrial workers earned until relatively recently. And before that, the luxury lives of rich and famous public employees was used a reason to support California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's attempt last year to curb the power of public employee unions in his "paycheck deception" initiative last year.

One only hopes that reason will prevail and people will compare what unionized public employees have, compare it to their increasingly Wal-Martized jobs, and decide that being a member of a union sounds like a pretty good deal. The question is, do we let the exploited and de-unionized private sector drag down the heavily unionized public sector, along with its decent pay and benefits, or do we let the public sector set an example for what the rest of non-union America can achieve?

A race to the bottom, or a fight to the top?


Related Stories

• Department of Labor Union Busting, June 24, 2006
• Union Organizing In the 21st Century: Card Check and Roach Motels (FireDogLake), May 30, 2006
• Union "Facts" -- NOT, March 20, 2006
• Not Your Father's Labor Department, March 14, 2006
• Democracy In American Workplaces? Joke, right? March 12, 2006
• The crocigator, February 22, 2006
• Anti-Union Forces Running Ads, Running Scared, February 14, 2006
• Strike Postscript: In Appreciation of Public Employees, December 22, 2005
• Live Like Slaves -- Part III (Public Employees Threaten Democracy), August 25, 2005

Workplace Fatalities Down In '05 From '04? Maybe yes, Maybe No

This is interesting.

As I reported earlier this week, workplace fatality figures for 2005 were released last week, and much to OSHA's great pleasure, the numbers went down from from 5,764 deaths in 2004 to "only" 5,702 workplace deaths in 2005. A small decrease, but a decrease nevertheless. Right?

Well, maybe.

As I was reading over past issues of Confined Space (which I'm sure we all do in our leisure time), I came across last year's announcement of the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries survey: 5,703 fatalities in 2004-- only one more than the 2005 total announced last week. The extra 61 were added to the 2004 last April as the revised total, bringing the final 2004 number to 5,764.

So, Mr. Foulke, before we get too excited about the positive news, maybe we should wait to see what next April brings.

Fighting Back Against Menacing Bloggers

Well, this is certainly interesting:

Yes, Blog Eagle will assist you by "swooping in to grab what people are saying on blogs and chatrooms about your company or developments affecting your industry."

Fighting blogs, fighting "disgruntled employees" all in one handy package:

Should you suspect an unsatisfied customer is spreading malcontent about your company, use CoreX to zero in on Web-based discussion forums. You can even monitor developments within your workforce in the event you have difficulties with disgruntled employees or just want to ensure your personnel are generally happy at work.

I'm pretty sure these people should be paying me a finders fee.

Manager Convicted Of Homicide: Sentenced To Teaching Safety Classes

I've written a few times about the deaths of Far West Water and Sewage Company employees James Gamble, 26, and Gary Lanser, 62, who were suffocated by toxic sewage gases while working on an underground sewer tank on Oct. 24, 2001, in Mesa Del Sol, Arizona.

The company and the company's President Brent Weidman were prosecuted. According to the prosecutors on the case, the violations were so blatant, and it was so obvious that the workers had no idea of the danger inherent in confined spaces, that a criminal prosecution was completely appropriate. The air in the tank had not been tested during the day of the incident, the workers weren’t properly trained and the required safety and rescue procedures weren’t followed. Far West decided to fight the case, at one point arguing that the workers had mysteriously suffered simultaneous heart attacks.

The company was convicted of negligent homicide and aggravated assault last November and fined $1.77 million. Weidman was found guilty by a jury of two counts of negligent homicide and two counts of endangerment last June. Last week he was sentenced:

Superior Court Judge Andrew Gould sentenced Brent H. Weidman to four years of supervised probation for one of the negligent homicide convictions and another four years for one of the aggravated-assault convictions. The sentences will be served concurrently.

Weidman was also sentenced to three years of supervised probation for a second count of negligent homicide and three years of supervised probation for another count of aggravated assault. Those terms will also be served concurrently, and will start after his four-year probation ends.

"I'm pleased it's over and that it came out the way it did," a still-emotional Weidman said in the hallway outside the courtroom moments after the sentence was handed down. "But, it will always be a sore spot in everyone's life. I'm sorry for the families and their loses and sorrow."

The judge also sentenced Weidman, who used to head Far West Water and Sewer Company, to serve 840 hours of community service in which he will teach safety training classes for the Arizona Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Yuma and ordered him to pay a $50,000 fine at the rate of $250 a month which will take Weidman about 17 years to pay off.

Yeah, I'll bet Weidman's pleased. Kills two workers, convicted of negligent homicide and gets sentenced to teaching and the equivalent of a monthly car payment -- fates apparently worse than jail. That should teach American employers not to kill their workers.

I've spend a lot of time in this blog talking about the ineffectiveness of OSHA's penalty system and the need for more criminal prosecutions of employers who kill workers in clear violation of OSHA standards. But if judges are going to hand down non-sentences like this, what's the point?

I am currently reading a book called Working Disasters: The Politics of Recognition and Response. I will review the entire book late, but there's a chapter by Richard Johnstone, Professor of Law at Griffith University in Australia, on "Courts, Crime and Workplace Disaster" that discusses how, throughout history, occupational safety and health offenses were not considered to be "real crime."

Johnstone discusses defense attorney's success in using a variety of defenses or "mitigation techniques" in the sentencing process such as "blameshifting" (subtly blaming the worker), pleas that the employer is a "good corporate citizen" with an otherwise excellent safety record, suggesting that the workers succumbed to a "freak accident," pointing out that the accident was in the "far distant past," whereas the employer has seen the light and corrected the problems, and, finally, "anthropomorphizing the defendendent," in other words, convicting the company as if it were a person, rather the the responsible persons themselves.

As we have seen, some of these tactics were clearly in play, and the judge, in this case, may have fallen for others. In other words, as Johnstone explains, judges

may have difficulty conceiving these offences to be truly criminal; they are susceptible to careless worker and other blameshifting arguments.

While the judge made no statement about his reasoning, it is entirely probable that in his heart of hearts, he felt that Weidman was truly sorry, that he probably wouldn't do it again, that it was (kind of) a freak accident (I mean, it doesn't happen every day), and anyway, why put a nice middle aged man in one of those nasty old prisons with all of those other, uh, disreputable scoundrals?

One more thing. Apparently attempting to make lemonaid out of lemons, Andrea Esquer, press secretary for Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, explained to Occupationalhazards.com:

That was really the point of pursuing criminal charges against him....We think [safety training] was one thing that was really needed to help these workers avoid this incident."

Well, no, I don't think training was the point here. No one will dispute the value of a good worker training program, particularly when it comes to the potentially deadly hazards of confined spaces. But training is only one small part of a comprehensive confined space program, which, if isolated from the rest of the program, essentially becomes another version of blaming the worker. Gamble and Lanser were sent by their manager into a confined space without evaulating the hazards, without monitoring the space, and without ensuring a means of rescue. Lack of training was only one part of the crimes.

The law states that the employer is responsible for maintaining safe working conditions. Putting the entire blame on lack of training puts the burden on the employee to confront his managers, risking his job. While risking one's job is clearly preferable to losing one's life, that's not the way the law is supposed to work in this country. After all, if the trained employee doesn't confront his manager, then whose fault is that?

What this makes clear is that we have a lot of work to do -- not just changing the laws, but also developing effective arguments to be presented to juries, as well as judges and the media.

Workplace Deaths Down In 2005 (Unless You're Hispanic, Black or Young)

Great news for the Bush administration's workplace safety and health program -- "positive news for our nation and all workers " -- according to OSHA head Edwin Foulke. And what's the good news? In 2005, only 15.6 workers were killed every day in on-the-job "accidents, a precipitous decline from the 15.8 workers killed in the workplace every day during 2004. That would be a total of 5,702 workplace deaths last year, down from 5,764 in 2004, according to the 2005 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries released last week. Foulke attributed the saving of .2 workers a day to the "tremendous success" of many OSHA "initiatives." He didn't elaborate as to what those "initiatives" may have been.

OK, so I'm being a poor sport. Good news is good news, no matter how small, right? Everyone should be happy about fewer workers being killed in 2005 than 2004, right?

That's right -- it's good news unless you're Hispanic, Black, or a young worker where the number of workplace fatalities rose last year, or unless you happen to live in the states of Wisconsin, Montana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Arizona,South Carolina, Maryland, Arkansas, Texas and Missouri where workplace deaths also rose. And, of course, unless you're one of the 50,000 - 60,000 workers who die of workplace disease every year.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney remarked that:

Our workplaces should be getting safer, not more dangerous. Yet six years of Bush Administration neglect and failure of workplace health and safety have put millions of workers at increased danger. It's clear that a change in direction and leadership is needed to protect workers on the job and to improve their lives.

While some groups of workers saw improvements, in 2005 job deaths increased among Latinos, Blacks, children, immigrants and agriculture workers. Sadly, but not surprisingly, these numbers confirm that under the Bush Administration, workers at the bottom of the economic ladder are paying a very heavy price.

917 Hispanic or Latino workers were killed in 2005, up from 902 deaths in 2004. Immigrant Latino workers bore the brunt of this increased toll, the AFL-CIO noted, with deaths increasing to 625 from 596 in 2004. Job fatalities among Black workers increased for the third year in a row, to 577 recorded deaths compared to 546 deaths in 2004.

Most upsetting, however, is the climbing toll of young workers. Deaths for workers under
20 years of age up 18 percent to 166 deaths, while 24 workers under the age of 16 lost their lives in the workplace, up 85 percent over 2004.

The news was good if you're a woman, whose fatal workplace injuries were down 3 percent (the lowest total ever recorded by the fatality census), but bad if you're an agricultural worker whose fatalities went up 23 percent from 145 in 2004 to 178 in 2005.

One of the most notable developments was the sharp rise in deaths from exposure to heat -- up over 150% from 18 fatalities in 2004 to 47 in 2005. California OSHA recently issued a heat standard as a result of a high number of heat-related deaths last year, although the number of California workers dying from heat exposure remains at the same number as last year at this time.

Meanwhile, workplace deaths rose in Wisconsin, Montana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Arizona, South Carolina, Maryland, Arkansas, Texas and Missouri and 12 other states, with Wisconsin, Montana and Mississippi showing more than a 25% increase.

Oh, and one other interesting detail. The biggest workplace disaster of 2005 was the March 23 explosion at BP's Texas City refinery in which 15 workers were killed. But when you look at the industry code for Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing (NAICS 3241), you find only 3 fatalities listed. If I didn't know better, petroleum refining would sounds like a pretty safe industry.

How could this be? The answer is that none of those killed in the Texas City refinery explosion were BP employees; they were all contractors who fall in some other industry code. What code they fell in, I have no idea. But it raises serious questions about the usefulness of the industry data.

Why Do California Workers Continue To Die From Heat?

In June, the state of California issued a regulation to protect outdoor workers from heat. The standard called for training, drinking water and shade for workers who are "suffering from heat illness or believing a preventative recovery period is needed."

David Woodfill of the Palm Springs Desert Sun notes that California's new heat regulations don't seem to be stopping worker deaths:

The California division of Occupational Safety and Health, or Cal/OSHA, said there’s been no decrease in the number of fatalities this year compared to the same period last year. Like last summer, the state has grappled with record high temperatures this year.

So far 10 fatalities within agriculture, construction and other industries may be attributed to excessive heat exposure. That’s the same number of fatalities that occurred this time last year when the state was slogging through record high temperatures.

So what's the problem?

Cal/OSHA spokesman Dean Fryer said his agency didn’t know why the number fatalities haven’t shrunk.

Well let's see if we can't try to figure it out. Woodfill and Fryer need to study some workplace realities -- real incentives and disincentives for workers -- and a good place to start might be a letter sent to the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board from Worksafe last April. Worksafe is a Coalition for Occuapational Safety and Health (COSH) group in California.

The letter, authored by Worksafe volunteer Fran Schreiberg, called for shade to be provided "during preventative recovery periods, meal periods, and during other rest periods the employer provides. " Worksafe wrote that

The OSH Standards Board proposal includes Access to Shade for preventative recovery periods, but must also require shade for meal and rest periods. Shade during meal and rest periods is necessary because workers will then have a longer opportunity to recover from the heat. It provides an incentive for workers to take the rest and meal breaks which the law already requires because it will be more comfortable. And providing for shade during these other periods reduces the risk that workers will seek shade in unsafe areas such as under equipment or under orchard trees which are posted for pesticides.

Worksafe also warned that the provision of recovery periods must not rely on worker requests:

The OSH Standards Board proposal leaves the onus on the individual worker to ask for the preventative recovery period. Workers, particularly low wage workers, are not likely to ask for help because they fear they will lose their job. Too often we hear about workers losing their jobs or getting demoted if they voice complaints about not receiving rest and meal periods which are already required by law. Giving the worker the duty to ask for a preventative recovery period is not realistic. Inevitably, workers will risk their health and as a result suffer from heat related illnesses rather than jeopardize their employment.

Requesting a preventative recovery period may not be possible when a worker is suffering from heat illness. Requesting a preventative recovery period is particularly problematic for an employee who is suffering from heat illness because one of the symptoms is confusion. Thus the employee may not even be able to ask for help.

The letter contains lot of aother suggestions to improve the standard as well.

In other words, if workers fear being fired for complaining about a health and safety problem, or if asking for an extra rest break means a cut in their pay because their quota won't be met, they won't be as likely to complain. That's why automatic, preventive shade breaks are better -- because they're preventive and don't require the worker to stick his or her neck out.

So Dean, now might be a good time to go back and look at Worksafe's letter, and maybe even commission an independent investigation of why the standard doesn't seem to be working. Not only will you save lives, but California can set an example for the 49 other states. And given Global Warming, now might be the time to figure this stuff out.

MSHA Resists "Once In A Lifetime" Chance To Fix Totally Dysfunctional Penalty System

All is not well inside the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

In June the Congress passed the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response, or MINER, Act, which significantly raised minimum fines for mine safety violations. The increased penalties were in response to findings that the Sago mine, where 12 miners died last January, had been cited 208 times and fined more than $24,000 last year for various violations, many of which were serious. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is currently in the process of writing regulations describing which violations receive the highest fines, and under what circumstances reductions in the penalties will be made.

But not everyone is happy with the first draft of MSHA's proposal. One critic wrote that

the formula is not tough enough to deter violations, and that some operators still may decide it costs less to pay fines than to develop comprehensive safety programs to prevent accidents.

and that:

"Given the opportunity to write a new regulation that can truly serve as a deterrent for the lack of compliance and put the industry on notice that it is too expensive to allow MSHA to be a safety department, we may have missed the target," the memorandum states.

and finally,

citing concerns that "root causes of violations and accidents are likely to go uncorrected and are destined to be repeated."

"We believe the overall system has to recognize noncompliance for what it is, a path that leads to injury and, eventually, disaster."

The memo criticizing MSHA's regulation, obtained by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, is not surprising.

The author, however, is surprising. This memo was written by the office of Ray McKinney, MSHA's administrator of Coal Mine Safety and Health. McKinney's office further argued that:

"Currently, it is cheaper for mines to fix what MSHA finds than to invest in a safety management system," the memorandum reads.

"This is [a] once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a difference in mine safety and health. Let's not let it slip by without making a difference."

McKinney's arguments were challenged by Jay Mattos, acting director for MSHA's Office of Assessments.

"The proposed rule will increase penalties by 226 percent for coal operators and 108 percent for metal and nonmetal operators. How much of an additional increase does Coal [Mr. McKinney's office] now believe is appropriate?"

Mr. McKinney argued that, "Although one can look at a substantial increase in fines over the old system, it must be taken into consideration that the old system was totally dysfunctional."

He also said insufficient fines were unfair to mine operators who make safety a top priority.

"To provide a level playing field for operators who wish to invest in a professional safety management system, the bar will have to be raised to more than offset this cost."

McKinney will leave his administrator's position at the end of August to become an MSHA district manager in Virginia.

It will be interesting to follow how, or if, MSHA manages to construct its penalty structure to presents a real deterrent to mine owners tolerating unsafe working conditions -- particularly large companies. And MSHA, of course, isn't the only agency whose fines are so low that it may be more profitable for some companies to pay the fine than to clean up the workplace. OSHA has the same problem. Even its record $21.3 million fine against BP last year for conditions leading to an explosion that killed 15 workers and injured 170 last year amounts to only a few hours of BP's annual profit.

More mine safety stories here.

BP: Beyond Believable

As we've noted several times before, the giant oil company, BP (formerly British Petroleum and BP Amoco), seems to be having its share of problems lately, killing workers, leaking huge amounts of oil in Alaska, and failing to maintain its pipelines (as well as a little fraud and good old fashioned air pollution thrown in.) This is despite its nine-year old attempt to change its image to becoming a more environmentally conscious BP -- Beyond Petroleum.

New York Times business writer Joe Nocera notes that BP's attempt to promote its green image hasn't exactly fooled most environmentalists:

When you talk to BP officials about that commitment, they trot out a host of examples to prove that it’s not just public relations. BP owns a big solar energy company. It has significantly lowered its greenhouse-gas emissions. It has a thriving biofuels program. And it is investing $8 billion over 10 years in alternative energy, like solar and wind power (though it includes natural gas as an alternative energy, which strikes me as a stretch).

Yet at its core, BP remains an oil company, and no matter how much it says it wants to create more environmentally sensitive sources of energy, its basic task is still to stick holes in the ground in search of hydrocarbons. The company recently spent nearly $4 billion building a huge pipeline stretching from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean. But it also asked a leading environmental group, the World Wildlife Federation, to act as an environmental consultant on the project; Mr. Dean, the BP spokesman, told me I should talk to someone at the W.W.F. if I wanted confirmation that BP was one of the environmental good guys.

So I did. But James Leaton, a senior policy adviser at the federation, didn’t exactly sound thrilled about how the collaboration had turned out. “In our view,” he said, “there are some sensitive places where you just shouldn’t go. BP went there anyway. They were open to some small changes, but we were fairly disappointed. Whenever you spoke to them, their view was about deadlines and budgets. Ours was about protecting the environment.” In other words, BP acted like the oil company it is.

Environmental groups, in fact, can be fairly scathing in their appraisal of BP. In 2002, Greenpeace awarded Lord Browne an Earth Day “Oscar” for Best Impression of an Environmentalist. “They are just not clean,” Melanie Duchin of Greenpeace told me. “And no amount of rebranding can make them clean.” She made the obvious point that when you make upwards of $20 billion in profit, as BP did in 2005, an $8 billion alternative fuels program — over 10 years! —isn’t exactly a bet-the-company move.

Nocera concedes that BP managers may sincerely believe in their "green" mission. But "walking the walk" seems a bit harder than "talking the talk"

I found plenty of people, with long experience in the oil patch, who are convinced that BP has long had a culture of corner-cutting that has led to its current problems. “It has to be systemic,” said Matthew R. Simmons, who runs an investment banking and consulting firm specializing in the oil industry. Mr. Simmons pointed out that whistle-blowers had been complaining for years about BP in Alaska.

And, he added, BP’s failure to inspect the pipeline by using a “pig”— a device that crawls through the pipeline taking X-ray-like pictures — was nothing short of negligence. “They found wall thicknesses that were down to four-tenths of an inch,” he said. “That is the thickness of a beer can.”

When I spoke to Mr. Dean of BP, he asserted that the company hadn’t used the pig because it thought that a newer technology, allowing the company to monitor the pipeline externally, was adequate. “We were shocked and dismayed,” he said. “We really felt we had a good inspection and monitoring program. We realize that we need to do better, and we will spare no expense to get it right.”

Mr. Dean, I have to say, came across as genuinely contrite; he must have said “We’re sorry” a half-dozen times in a 45-minute phone call. “This cuts to our core values,” he told me with considerable anguish. I got the strong impression, not just from him but from watching other BP officials on television this week, that the company really is determined to do whatever it can to fix the problems — and prevent them from happening again.

Which is great, so far as it goes. And I give BP credit for acknowledging so forthrightly that it made mistakes. But in the meantime, BP is going to pass through a painful gantlet. It will undoubtedly be raked over the coals by Congress (hearings are set for early September); it will have its worst documents exposed in lawsuits; it will find itself under fierce regulatory scrutiny; and it will be accused, I’m sure, of the worst sort of corporate greed and hypocrisy. It’ll be a long time before anyone believes anything BP has to say about its environmental sensitivity.

I can’t say that my heart bleeds. If BP hadn’t been so holier than thou in its marketing these past years, I doubt that it would be getting hammered right now — at least to this extent. If there is one ironclad rule about marketing, it is that you had better be practicing internally what you are preaching to the world.

Let me put it another way: You can’t just talk the talk, you have to walk the walk.

A diary entry by Jorndorff at Daily Kos isn't quite so confident of BP's good intentions, pointing out that whistleblowers had raised questions about BP's pipeline maintenance two years ago.

BP's decision to shut down Prudhoe Bay is said to have been due to its recent scrutiny of the pipeline. But back on March 15, shortly after the record pipeline leakage, the Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration mandated a thorough cleaning and "pigging" of its lines "in order to prevent and detect further corrosion."

In short, this discovery came (not through routine internal safety priorities) but only once such action was mandated by the federal government to ensure the integrity of the company's pipelines. The mandated Corrective Action Order gave the company a June 15 deadline to complete the cleaning of its lines. Not a single line was cleaned by the deadline. The delay is squarely the responsibility of BP, which claimed that "factors outside its control" prevented them to be able to clean its lines. Fingers were pointed at Alyeska Pipeline Company, which is partially owned by BP, for its refusal to allow pigging. BP contended that it would abide by the order, but that it would take approximately two years to complete all aspects.

And even worse,

Chuck Hamel, longtime BP employee advocate, recently told NBC that "a dozen past and current BP employees came to him claiming they'd been told to cut back on a chemical put into the system to retard rust and corrosion, and to falsify records. A federal official confirms that many of these workers have also talked to the FBI."

Asked why BP would do such a thing, Hamel responded, "to save money."

Finally, noting Enron's manipulation of California's energy supply resulting in blackouts several years ago, and accusations that BP recently manipulated the propane market to jack up prices, the author wonders whether the current shutdown is purely accidental, given the increased profit BP will be making by the resulting rise in oil prices.

Nah.

More BP stories here.

Closing In On The Empty Nest

Back from a short vacation in California with the extended family, and a couple of days in Florida depositing Daughter #2 at college. Still one son to go -- three years from now -- before we're officially empty nesters.

And what an exciting week it was! Lamont defeats Lieberman, encouraging Al Qaeda to plan a dasterdly hair gel and toothpaste attack on the US, just as Dick Cheney predicted after Lieberman's defeat. Unfortunately, with all the flying I did, I failed to get much reading done, sitting nervously next to a 10-year old girl who had somehow evaded security with her lip-gloss in hand. Luckily it failed to detonate; nevertheless I felt it my patriotic duty to report her and her parents to Homeland Security anyway. Meanwhile, despite my long absence, the longest, most painful labor in history -- also known as "the birth pangs of a new Middle East" -- seems to be continuing.

Anyway, it's good to be back on the ground, safe and secure in Washington DC, having confirmed by the precipitous fall in my site visits that you missed me, you really missed me.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program....

Clueless At the White House: Snowed By Pickler on Stickler

The "big" news for many Confined Space readers last week was the Senate's rejection of Richard Stickler to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Stickler had faced strong opposition from labor and Senate Democrats like West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd. On the last day of the session, the Senate voted to send Stickler's nomination back to the White House, leaving the President with the the choice of resubmitting Stickler's name, nominating someone else, or making a recess appointment of Stickler while Congress is out of session.

How significant Stickler's rejection is to the White House was revealed in yesterday's Press Conference with White House Press Secretary Tony Snow. Asked by AP Correspondent Nedra Pickler if the President was going to do a recess appointment of Stickler, Snow replied:

You have to let know earlier on ones like that, Nedra. I'll go back and work the phones. I have no earthly clue.

Well, gosh Tony, that was obvious when the President nominated him in the first place.

BP Shuts Down Oil Fields: Problems Continue Since '05 Explosion

Workers are often said to be society's canaries in the coal mine -- the first warnings of chemical health problems for society at large are often first seen when workers start dropping.

The metaphor has been widened today with British Petroleum's announcement that it has shut down for an indefinite period of time its huge Prudhoe Bay oil field in northern Alaska "after finding 'unexpectedly severe corrosion' in a pipeline." The shutdown reduces the American oil supply by 8%.

So how did workers provide a warning to this action that has already raised oil prices by $2 a barrel? In March 2005 a catastrophic explosion ripped through BP's Texas City refinery, killing 15 workers and injuring 170. That incident revealed to the world BP's systemic neglegence of basic precautions needed to protect workers, the community and the environment.

The Texas City incident resulted in a record $21.4 million OSHA fine and possible civil and criminal prosecution. And the Chemical Safety Boards findings that BP's problems go way beyond the screw-ups at the Texas City plant which resulted in an unprecedented "urgent" recommendation that the company establish an independent panel to look into the safety "culture" at all of its North American plants. And let's not forget the $2.4 million OSHA fine against BP's Ohio plant for unsafe conditions. In June, BP announced a little 267,000 gallon oil spill at BP's Prudhoe Bay field, the largest ever on Alaska's North Slope region. That spill may also bring criminal charges against BP.

Financial analyists were alarmed:

“It is difficult to say if this is a BP-wide issue,” said Craig Pennington, the director of the global energy group at Schroders in London. “But they appear to cut corners for the sake of short-term profit maximization. If you are a serial underspender in a refinery, it will come back to haunt you.”

And the short-term profit chickens continue to come home to roost:

BP said that inspections of its facilities at Prudhoe Bay over the weekend had found pipeline walls in more than one location that had been made too thin by corrosion to meet the company’s safety standards. In one area, it said, the equivalent of four to five barrels of oil had already leaked out of the pipeline and spilled on the tundra.

BP said that spill had been contained, and that workers were in the process of cleaning it up.

The company is still inspecting other pipelines and production facilities at the field. So far, BP said this morning, 40 percent of the company’s 22 miles of pipeline in Prudhoe Bay had been completely inspected.

In March, pipeline corrosion caused a leak of more than 200,000 gallons of oil, the worst spill since production began on Alaska’s North Slope. The incident raised questions about whether BP, based in Britain, had been properly maintaining its aging oil production network there, which it acquired when it merged with Amoco in 1998.

***

The latest corrosion problem was detected during an inspection that the government required BP to perform after the March oil spill. A “smart pig” examination, using a machine that travels through the inside of a pipeline to measure wall thickness, revealed that the steel had corroded in 16 places to thicknesses less than BP considers safe.

Daren Beaudo, a BP spokesman, said that for the pipeline in question, safety standards require that at least 70 percent of the steel in a 3/8-inch-thick wall must be intact.

And, as might be imagined, BP's problems are raising further questions about the advisability of drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.

The Slow Road To Mine Safety: Simply Amazing, And Simply Intolerable

(Yes, I'm still on vacation, no phone, no cell -- but we have intermittant wireless, so sometimes I can't resist, especially when a newspaper mentions Confined Space. OK, back to vacationing...)

The Louisville Courier Journal thinks its "simply amazing, and simply intolerable" that there seems to be a constant battle to ensure the functioning of some of the most basic safety precautions that keep miners alive -- things like checking to make sure the respirators work.

And while MSHA announces that it will "use a computational fluid dynamics study to build a mathematical model and calculate explosive pressures" in order to "digitally reconstruct this year's Sago Mine explosion in West Virginia,"

in the meantime, it's the simple things that keep killing and injuring miners.

According to the U. S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, Jermey Heckler was the 37th American miner to die this year, when a pressurized tire blew last weekend as he was welding and grinding the rim.

This was no "freak accident," as the publication Confined Space points out. In the past decade, there have been at least four similar fatal incidents.

After one, MSHA faulted the company for not providing proper equipment with which to inflate tires. In another, a supervisor was found guilty of aggravated negligence for telling a miner to cut a slot in a brake drum, which ignited gases in the adjacent tire.

Those seem like simple things to avoid. A 1996 MSHA handbook says mine tires never should be welded, brazed or cut.

Simple things kill.

The Weekly Toll: Death In The American Workplace

Sometimes you notice coincidences that you haven't noticed before. This time there seem to be quite a few dump truck accidents. Kind of makes you think. -- JB

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Worker Killed Clearing Land In Kingsland

KINGSLAND, Ga. -- A man on a land-clearing project on Highway 40 at Haddock Road died Thursday. Kingsland police are investigating what was described as a construction accident at the site where a Lowe's store will be built.

An officer said the victim was apparently backed over by a fully loaded dump truck early in the afternoon. The name of the victim and other details were not immediately available.


Man dies at Quincy data center site. Cause of death yet to be verified

QUINCY, WA -- A 31-year-old Richland man fell to his death Tuesday while working at the building site for Microsoft Corp.'s new data center. Travis L. Watts was laying roof decking when he fell approximately 35 feet to the ground at about 12:30 p.m., according to Chief Deputy Coroner Lynette Henson.


Semi driver dies in I-70 crash

Putnamville, IN -- A Pennsylvania semi-truck driver died Tuesday after he was thrown from his vehicle during a crash Tuesday afternoon on Interstate 70 near the Putnamville exit, police said.

Robert L. Welty, 58, of Parker, Penn., died as a result of “massive body trauma,” according to a press release from Indiana State Police. Welty was driving a tanker truck hauling non-hazardous motor oil westbound on I-70.


St. Louis man killed fixing generator

St. Louis, MO -- A man trying to fix a generator during the St. Louis area's weeklong blackout was killed when flames from a lantern ignited gasoline on his clothes, authorities said.

The man killed, James Eddie Fleming, had been trying to fix a generator that relatives were using to light and cool their home. Fleming was draining gas from the clogged machine when some got onto his clothes and was ignited by flames from the lantern, authorities said. Fleming, 41, was declared dead Wednesday, the St. Clair County Coroner's Office said.

A day earlier, a utility worker trying restore power to the St. Louis suburb of Ladue was electrocuted when he stepped on branches covering a live wire.


Female firefighter dies in Marshall County accident, three hurt

ASBURY Ala. -- A young volunteer firefighter was killed and three others injured when the fire truck they were riding in ran off a bridge in rural Marshall County and plunged about 40 feet down an embankment.

Aletha Faye Nixon, 17, died at the scene of Wednesday night's accident. Authorities said the firefighters, all volunteers for the Asbury Fire Department, were responding to a fire call when the accident happened on Martling Road.


Driver hits, kills teen worker after falling asleep

FARMINGTON Minn. -- A teenager working near a road died Thursday when she was struck by a driver who had fallen asleep at the wheel, police said. Jacque Devney, 18, a recent graduate of Farmington High School, was working on a trail as part of her job for the city of Farmington.


Inmates Kill Guard At Prison In Md.; Officer Stabbed By Cell Escapees

Jessup, MD -- Two inmates escaped from their cells and stabbed a guard to death at a maximum-security state prison in Jessup, authorities said yesterday as Maryland State Police arrived in force to help quell a recent run of violence at the facility.

The inmates attacked guard David McGuinn, 42, late Tuesday, stabbing him repeatedly in the upper torso before returning to their cells, state police said. The prison was locked down at the time, and corrections officials said McGuinn's assailants may have jammed the locks to their cell doors.

Late last night, state police obtained warrants charging inmates Lamar C. Harris, 26, and Lee E. Stephens, 27, with murder. McGuinn was the second Maryland corrections officer to be killed this year, and the first to be killed inside a prison since 1984. McGuinn's slaying marked a further escalation in violence at the House of Correction, a facility that was built in 1878 and houses 1,100 inmates. Two corrections officers were stabbed and seriously wounded in March, and three inmates have been killed in as many months.


Worker killed at ATK plant

ROCKET CENTER W.Va. -- Authorities are investigating the death of a worker at Alliant Techsystems Inc.'s plant in Mineral County. Steven James Stafford, 30, of Finzel was killed Monday when he became pinned by a molding machine that he was operating. Stafford was pronounced dead at the scene, State Police Trooper J.L. Clay said.


San Francisco officer killed by van in chase

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- A San Francisco police officer died early Wednesday after a van involved in a chase hit his cruiser, flipping it onto the sidewalk. The 39-year-old officer, whose name has not been released, arrived at an intersection in the city's Bayview District to assist other officers pursuing a van matching the description of a vehicle used in a robbery at a city bus station, according to San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong.


Worker struck, killed by car while entering Appliance Park

Louisville, KY -- A 51-year-old woman was killed yesterday when she was struck by a car on her way into General Electric Appliance Park near Poplar Level and Fern Valley roads. Regenia Sommers, of the 5600 block of Indian Oaks Circle, was pronounced dead at the scene just before 6 a.m., said Eddie Robinson, a Jefferson County deputy coroner.

Investigators believe Sommers, who was a contract worker at GE, was struck after getting off a TARC bus near an entrance to an access road on the property, said Officer Dwight Mitchell, a Louisville Metro Police spokesman.


Electrical worker killed restoring power to St. Louis

ST. LOUIS, MO -- An Ameren Corp. worker was killed Tuesday and another utility worker was injured in separate incidents while the men were trying to help restore power to the remaining 145,000 homes and businesses still without power in the St. Louis area.

Robert Tackett, 56, of St. Charles, was working in Ladue when he walked into brush where an energized line was partially hidden, the company said in a written statement. Tackett had worked for Ameren for 13 years.

Also Tuesday, a contract worker employed by Kansas City-based Par Electric came into contact
with an energized line while working in the Spanish Lake area of north St. Louis County, Ameren said. He was hospitalized and was expected to recover.


Kenner truck driver killed

New Orleans, LA -- A dump truck overturned on Interstate 10 in eastern New Orleans on Monday afternoon, killing the driver, New Orleans police said. The victim was Frank Burkett, 43, of Kenner, chief coroner's investigator John Gagliano said.

Burkett was eastbound when he lost control of the truck on a curve after coming off the Industrial Canal high-rise bridge about 3:50 p.m. The accident occurred near the Chef Menteur exit. The truck, which carried a load of sand, overturned onto the driver's side, said Garry Flot, a police public information officer.


Dishwasher accused of killing Dartmouth restaurant manager

NEW BEDFORD Mass. -- A dishwasher at a Dartmouth restaurant fatally stabbed his boss after she repeatedly reprimanded him for putting pans through the dishwasher, prosecutors said Monday. Ryan Jones, 28, was ordered held without bail on a charge of murder. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in New Bedford District Court.

He allegedly stabbed Valerie Oranski 20 times Saturday morning as the Old Country Buffet was about to open. She was pronounced dead a short time later.


Truck hits tractor, and driver is killed

Omaha, NE -- A 39-year-old Scottsbluff man died Wednesday when the pickup he was driving crashed into a tractor pulling a hay baler. Tim Jones was eastbound in a 1996 Ford Ranger pickup on U.S. Highway 30 in Cheyenne County when he hit the farm vehicle, which also was going east. The accident occurred shortly after 6:30 a.m. about a mile east of Potter.


Worker killed on Palmer project; Company handling sewer line had been cited by OSHA.

Allentown, PA -- A construction worker was killed Wednesday when he stumbled and fell beneath the tires of a dump truck while working on a sewer line project on Van Buren Road in Palmer Township, police said. The accident that killed John Kotchmar, 59, of West Penn Township, happened about 9 a.m. near the intersection of Newlins Mill Road, police said.

"It appears he either tripped or stumbled in the process of moving some pipes off the roadway," Lysek said. "He was bent down and in that process of moving pipes, he either stumbled or tripped or didn't see the truck backing up and it backed over him." Kotchmar worked for James T. O'Hara Co., a Moscow, Lackawanna County, company that has been cited by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the past for safety violations.


OSHA to investigate worker's death at Lowndes steel mill site

COLUMBUS Miss. -- The federal Occupational, Safety and Health Administration will investigate the death of a worker at a steel mill construction site in Lowndes County. County Coroner Greg Merchant said Tony Vic Chebalier, 46, of Palestine, Texas, was "run over by" a 30,000-pound forklift Wednesday at the SeverCorr site.

Chebalier was a foreman for Schueck Steel Co., and had been with the Little Rock, Ark.-based company since 1999. ...Merchant said the forklift was about to lift a 20-foot-long beam on the east side of the 1,400-acre site when the mishap occurred. He said Chebalier was dead at the scene.


Construction worker dies at housing site; Another worker injured in fall down ventilator shaft

Memphis, TN -- A construction worker fell about 25 feet to his death Monday at the former Fowler Homes public housing site that is being redeveloped. The worker fell down a ventilation shaft about 11 a.m. at the site at S. Fourth and Crump, according to officials. Another worker also was injured in the accident. His condition is unknown.

The workers, who were not identified, were employees of Caroma Construction Co., said MHA board chairman Ricky Wilkins.


Road worker dies in hit-and-run

Macon, GA -- One construction worker was killed and another was injured when they were struck by a car as they worked on a road-widening project in DeKalb County, police said Wednesday. Sirlento Smith, 30, was charged with felony homicide by vehicle and hit-and-run, DeKalb police spokesman Herschel J. Grangent Jr. said.

Police said Angel Vasquez, 29, was pronounced dead at the scene following the Tuesday accident. Erasto Trujillo Monterrosa, believed to be 22 years old, was injured.


Worker dies after 15-foot fall from roof

Myrtle Beach, SC -- A man who fell from a roof where he was working last week has died in a hospital, the Charleston County Coroner's Office said. Gregorio Mendoza, 45, had been working on a home here when he fell at least 15 feet and hit the concrete around 6 p.m. Friday, said Deputy Coroner Dottie Lindsay. Mendoza, who had been on life support at the Medical University of South Carolina Hospital, died Sunday.


OSHA investigating electrocution of contractor

Newark, DE --The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating a construction accident in Chester City that claimed the life of contractor Terry H. Green, 43. Green was electrocuted when his cherry picker contacted high-voltage lines. Two employees were injured. Green, who was working on a church in the 700 block of Morton Avenue, owned Green's Building & Remodeling, of Newark, Del.


Construction worker killed after beam collapse

BOULDER COUNTY, CO - A construction accident killed a 26-year-old worker and injured another Tuesday morning. Boulder County Sheriff's deputies say emergency workers responded to a home under construction at 13049 Woodridge Drive just after 9 a.m., in a new residential subdivision, just north of Longmont.

The men had been placing the beam in the basement of the unfinished home when it slipped and fell from the support cradles. Other workers at the site were able to get the two men out from under the beam, which was estimated as weighing two tons.

The two workers were employed by Superfox construction, a sub-contractor of Johnson & Terch of Denver.


Electrocution cause of man's death

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- A Manchester man who was killed in an accident at the General Mills plant in Cedar Rapids was electrocuted, officials said. Christopher Kluesner, 42, died Saturday. Linn County Medical Examiner Dr. Donald Linder ruled that Kluesner died of cardiac arrest caused by accidental electrocution. Kluesner was electrocuted while replacing a fan on a transformer, officials said.

The agency reported that Kluesner worked for The ESCO Group, which according to the company's Web site provides electrical, automation, engineering and software services to industrial and commercial clients.


Son of former Rep. Livingston killed in work accident

NEW ORLEANS, LA -- Richard Livingston, 37, the son of former U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston, was killed Tuesday while doing tree trimming work in New Orleans. Family spokesman Jim Pruitt confirmed the death. He did not provide details but police said a 37-year-old man was electrocuted Tuesday morning in New Orleans' Lakeview neighborhood when he apparently touched a wire while doing tree-trimming work. Emergency workers pronounced him dead at the scene.

Police identify worker killed in Miami County accident

PAOLA Kan. -- Authorities on Wednesday identified an oil field worker who was electrocuted. Jacob Rhea, 20, Paola, died in the accident Tuesday, the Miami County Sheriff's Department said. Two other workers were also injured. Matt Baker, 24, Paola, remained hospitalized, and Scott Rogers, 35, Osawatomie, was treated and released.

The three men, who worked for Osborn Energy of Bucyrus, were injured when the boom of the truck they were working on came in contact with overhead power lines.


Police identify man killed in industrial accident

Ogden, UT -- Police in South Ogden have identified a Colorado man who died Saturday in an industrial accident as Ipolito Perez. A 2-ton gas-line pipe crushed Perez when it broke free from its hoist at a construction site near 2000 North 1800 West at about 1 p.m.


Former Narcotics Officer Dies

Provo, UT -- A former Provo narcotics officer died this morning from liver cancer. He believed exposure to meth chemicals may have caused it. An Eyewitness News investigation last year first uncovered the mysterious myriad off illnesses of more than 80 Utah drug officers who busted meth labs in the 1990's.

Trent Halladay, 37, was an officer for 11 years, including six and a half years with the major crimes task force. A friend and colleague of Halladay's tells us Halladay had a stroke July 5th, and he'd been bed-ridden ever since.


Worker's death in heat is probed; The 38-year-old gardener had been on the job for only three days.

Bakersfield, CA -- California authorities have launched a probe into the state's first possible heat-related workplace fatality in 2006, officials announced Friday.

Investigators suspect Bakersfield gardener Joaquin Ramirez, 38, may have died of heat stroke after collapsing on the job late Wednesday, said Dean Fryer, a spokesman for the Division of Occupational Safety and Health.

Ramirez, an employee of Raul Hidalgo Lawn Services, died after only three days on the job. It could take up to six weeks for the Kern County Coroner's Office to determine the cause of death.


Steel crushes construction worker; death is 4th linked to weather

St Louis, MO -- A construction worker was killed Friday when high wind blew a load of steel onto him, crushing him in a shallow trench, authorities said. His was the fourth death attributed to a week of strong thunderstorms and withering heat.

St. Louis County police said the victim [Eric L. Foskett, 42, of High Ridge] was a dump-truck driver working in the 7500 block of MacKenzie Road in Affton. The wind toppled steel used to shore up trenches, pinning him in the 3-foot-deep trench about 11 a.m. He was pronounced dead at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.


Cal/OSHA Investigates Second Possible Heat Illness Fatality

SACRAMENTO, Ca -- Labor and Workforce Development Agency Secretary Victoria Bradshaw announced today that Cal/OSHA is investigating the second possible heat illness related fatality of 2006. Benadino Gomez, a 49 year old employee of Valley Pool and Plastering in Fresno, died Thursday night at a worksite in Kerman, after laboring in temperatures that reached 109 degrees.


Construction worker killed in incident

Las Vegas, NV -- A tractor-trailer struck two construction workers, killing one of them Thursday morning in Sun City Anthem in Henderson, according to broadcast reports.

A water truck rolled into the tractor-trailer about 9:40 a.m., setting it in motion along Sun City Anthem Road at Preston Park Drive, according to broadcast reports. The truck then pinned down two construction workers, killing one and injuring the other.


Falling tree kills logger

TOWN OF MEEME Wis. -- A logger was killed when a tree fell and struck him in the Town of Meeme, the Manitowoc County Sheriff's office said. Douglas R. Parsons was working on a downed tree when a 100-foot tree that was leaning on another tree fell and struck him on Thursday, Deputy Inspector Gregg Schetter said.

The 50-year-old man from Valders wasn't pinned by the tree, he said, but he was killed when a large branch struck him.


Truck driver dies in crash on S.R. 427

Orange County, FL -- One man died Thursday in a crash on State Road 427 in east Orange County, Florida Highway Patrol officials said.

Jesse Wayne Henson, 56, of Pear Tree Court in Orlando was driving a 2003 Chevrolet S-10 pickup when the crash took place three miles north of Orlando on the bridge crossover at Trevathon Road.


Fatal crash closes Smith Road Driver killed as dump truck hits rig

Fort Wayne, IN -- An investigator climbs the cab of a dump truck to get a better look inside at the scene of a fatal truck crash on Smith Road on Friday.

Gray cinderblocks strewn in a messy pile along Smith Road on Friday afternoon were among the wreckage motorists saw after a traffic accident that took the life of one driver and injured a second person. A dump truck collided with a tractor-trailer rig hauling the cinderblock along Smith Road just after 2 p.m., shutting down Smith Road for hours.


Families Of Men Killed In Industrial Accident Struggle To Deal With Loss

VEVAY, Ind. -- Investigators are still looking in to the construction accident that killed two men at a Kentucky plant Friday. It happened in the Carroll County community of Ghent at North American Stainless. A roof panel gave way, sending two men -- 21 year old Matthew Collins and 31 year old Ricky Dilts -- to their deaths and leaving their families stunned.


PennDOT worker killed near Union City

A PennDOT supervisor was struck and killed by a dump truck Tuesday morning while working in a construction zone just north of Union City. Earle J. Chandler, 48, of Meadville, was flown to Hamot Medical Center in Erie, where he was pronounced dead about 45 minutes after the 8 a.m. accident in Union Township, Erie County, said state police in Corry.

The crash occurred as the dump truck was backing up in the work zone of a milling operation on Route 8, about a quarter-mile north of Union City, according to police. Chandler walked behind the truck and was struck by it as the vehicle's four right-rear tires went over him, police said.


Construction Worker Killed at Cabela's Site

La Vista, NE -- A construction worker at La Vista's Cabela's site is dead after being electrocuted Tuesday night.

Stanley Price, 30, of Shepherdsville, Ky., was attempting to change a fitting on the end of a high powered cord at the construction site when he was electrocuted, according to the La Vista Police Department, which is investigating the death with the Sarpy County Sheriff's Office.

Price, who was employed by Aspen Coatings of Colorado Springs, Colo., was found unresponsive by coworkers at about 10 p.m. Tuesday. La Vista rescue crews responded to the site at 12703 Westport Parkway, but were unable to revive Price.


Refuse worker killed in Elizabeth Township

Elizabeth Township, PA -- A refuse worker from Washington County was killed yesterday when a pickup truck struck him and pinned him against a garbage truck in Elizabeth Township.

Victor Cavazos, 40, of Washington, Pa., was pronounced dead of injuries to his trunk and thigh in Jefferson Regional Medical Center at 7:24 a.m., the Allegheny County medical examiner said.


Worker who fell 20 feet dies

Rochester, NY -- A man who fell through the skylight of an apartment building on Friday has died, according to Rochester police.

Tom Hill, 63, of Marion, Wayne County, was working on the roof at 1620 N. Clinton Ave., said Rochester police Lt. Frank Churnetski. Hill reportedly slipped and fell 20 feet through a skylight then into a stairwell about 9:30 a.m. Friday. Rochester police did not know when Hill died. The Medical Examiner's Office declined to release that information.


Driver killed after truck carrying farm chemicals rolls

VALLEY CITY, N.D. - A truck hauling water and farm chemicals overturned in a ditch along a Barnes County road, killing the driver and spilling a "minimal amount" of the chemicals, authorities said.

Bryan Haugen, 27, of Valley City, was driving from one field to another Wednesday morning, just south of Interstate 94, when the semi tractor-trailer drifted off the road and into a ditch, the Highway Patrol said.

Haugen tried to drive the truck back onto the road but its trailer and load shifted and the vehicle rolled, the patrol said. The trailer pulled the truck into the ditch and rolled onto its top, authorities said. Haugen was dead at the scene.


Worker crushed

Coraopolis, PA -- A construction worker died in Coraopolis yesterday when a hydraulic press he was helping to move fell on him.

Todd Aumen, 37, of Sunbury, Northumberland County, died instantly around 3:30 p.m. when the press crushed him, the Allegheny County medical examiner's office said. Mr. Aumen worked for the Raker Construction Co., based in Sunbury. He was working on Throne Street in Coraopolis when the machine fell on him. It was unclear how the accident happened.


Truck driver killed

Mercer, PA -- Southbound lanes of Interstate 79 in southeastern Mercer County were closed yesterday morning after a fatal accident involving the driver of a tractor-trailer truck near the Grove City exit in Springfield.

State police in Mercer said the driver, James J. Spraker, 26, of Camillus, NY, drove off the road and onto the median, then back onto the highway. The rig then rolled onto its side, striking a guide rail around 2:50 a.m.


Truck driver killed in Rankin County

Jackson, MS -- The driver of a semi-trailer hauling Coca-Cola products died today in a one-vehicle accident in south Rankin County. James G. Johnson, age unavailable, of Hazelhurst died at the scene of the accident, Sheriff Ronnie Pennington said.

The vehicle’s passenger, whose name was not released, was transported to the University of Mississippi Medical Center with serious injuries.


Truck Driver Killed

NORFOLK, NEB. (AP) A 65-year-old Ravenna man is dead following the collision of a pickup and semitrailer last night about 20 miles northwest of Norfolk.

The Nebraska State Patrol says 65-year-old Errol Hehnke died when the semi he was driving collided with a pickup at an unmarked intersection. The 36-year-old driver of the pickup was taken to a Sioux City, Iowa hospital in critical condition.


Former Grand Ridge resident dies in farm accident

Ottawa, IL -- Leonard C. Adair of Urbana, Mo., 69, formerly of Grand Ridge, died Thursday, July 13, in an accident near his home. The Missouri Highway Patrol investigated the accident.

Adair was steering an International farm tractor being towed by a pickup on a county road when the chain broke or came loose from the tractor, according to Brett Viets, Dallas County coroner. The tractor struck the back of the truck. The tractor went over the side of a bridge, turning over and pinning Adair underwater, Viets said.


Swea City man dies in farm accident

SWEA CITY, IA — A Kossuth County man died in a farm accident Wednesday evening. Killed when the tractor he was driving rolled and pinned him underneath was 66-year-old Jerry Lee Wegner of Swea City, authorities reported.

Wegner was raking grass in a ditch when the tractor tipped, pinning him under it, according to the Kossuth County Sheriff’s Department.


Construction worker electrocuted

VIDALIA, TN — A construction worker on the site of the new Wal-Mart Supercenter in Vidalia was electrocuted Wednesday. Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland confirmed the reports Wednesday evening.“From what I gather there was an accident by a young man working an electrical job at Wal-Mart and he got electrocuted.”

Copeland said he heard the man was a 30-year-old contractor from Arkansas.


Investigators look into crash

JEANERETTE, LA - Federal aviation officials arrived Wednesday to investigate a fatal airplane accident but have yet to determine why an experienced pilot crashed into a mobile home blocks from the town's small airstrip.

The pilot, his only passenger and the home's owner were killed in the Tuesday afternoon crash on Bert Street. The Beechcraft, single-engine plane was owned by private prison company LCS Corrections Services of Lafayette and was transporting an employee back from Texas. The pilot, Farrell Skelton of Lafayette, had worked as the company's primary pilot for about eight years, LCS Vice President Richard Harbison said.


NorthWestern linesman was electrocuted

DILLON, MT -- A journeyman linesman for NorthWestern Energy who died on the job last week was electrocuted, Madison County Deputy Coroner Roger Thompson said Tuesday.

Curtis Williams, 33, of Dillon, died last Thursday afternoon while hooking up power to a house near Sheridan in Madison County.

"It appears he made contact with electrical wire that was still hot," Thompson said. "It electrocuted him, and he went into cardiac arrest."


Three arrests made in fatal shooting of convenience store clerk

TUCSON Ariz. -- Two men and a teenager have been arrested in the slaying of a Tucson convenience store clerk and police said they were searching for a fourth suspect in the case.

Armando Ramirez, 30, surrendered to police early Wednesday, two days after a warrant for his arrest had been issued. Police said Christopher Cottle, 50, was fatally shot Saturday outside the Quik Mart where he was working after three men stole beer from the store.


Truck driver dies in collision on I-35W

Fort Worth, TX -- A 5-year-old girl from Grand Prairie was in serious condition Friday at a Fort Worth hospital after an accident on Interstate 35W in Johnson County that also killed the driver of a flatbed truck.

The truck driver's name was unavailable Friday because his family had not been notified, said Trooper Mitch Whiteside of the Texas Department of Public Safety's office in Cleburne.

"I'm going to say in the initial investigation that he probably fell asleep," Whiteside said, "but we'll probably have to do an autopsy to find out."


CHP investigating bus crash; Officers probing how collision with backhoe occurred.

LEMOORE, CA -- California Highway Patrol officials were trying to determine how a backhoe collided with a tour bus full of casino patrons Wednesday afternoon in northern Kings County, which resulted in the death of the bus's guide.

The collision just after 4 p.m. on southbound Highway 41 near Elgin Avenue left 56-year-old Isaak Guterman of San Francisco dead at the scene, said Kings County coroner's officials.

Guterman was in the right-front seat of the bus, operated by Rodeo Express Charter from the Bay Area, said CHP officer Jerry Pierce. Guterman was the tour bus guide.


Trucker crushed by load on runaway ramp

WILKESBORO N.C. -- A tractor-trailer driver was crushed to death on a runaway-truck ramp when his load went through the front of the trailer and into the cab on U.S. 421 late Wednesday, authorities said.

Iziah D. James, 32, of Irvington, N.J., was killed shortly before 10 p.m., the state Highway Patrol said. He was hauling a load of liquid detergent stored inside large shipping containers that weighed between 40,000 and 42,000 pounds.


Truck driver killed in accident identified

San Antonio, TX -- Authorities have identified a man who was killed on Monday when an 18-wheeler he was driving crashed through a guardrail on an exit ramp to Loop 410 South.

William Earl Barrett Jr., 41, of Round Rock was killed when the truck fell more than 30 feet to the access road below and burst into flames, causing the truck's cab to disintegrate, the report said.


Logging equipment hits, kills man

Salem, OR -- A Stayton man died Friday when logging equipment fell on him in rural Yamhill County, sheriff's officials said. Jose Guadalupe Ramirez, who officials said was in his 30s, was killed instantly. His body was taken to Weddle Funeral Home in Stayton.

The incident occurred about 6 a.m. in the Haskins Watershed northwest of McMinnville, officials said. Ramirez was part of a Lulay Logging Co. crew working with a cable-suspended log carrier.

Ramirez was below the empty carrier when a mechanical failure with a winch that held the cable taut caused the carrier to drop suddenly, striking Ramirez. Detectives and state workplace safety officials were investigating the incident.


Worker Killed In Explosion

NEW PLYMOUTH, Idaho -- A cutting torch ignited flammable glycerol and methanol vapors, causing the explosion that killed Blaise Black at his family's biodiesel plant, according to the Payette County sheriff's office. Black, 25, of Meridian, was trying to install a vent in the mostly empty 25,000-gallon storage tank.

Blaise Black, whose father, Rob Black, was part owner of the biodiesel plant, was working to install a vent a 2-inch-diameter steel pipe with a 90-degree elbow on the end onto the tank. However, a 2-inch steel cap was missing from the top of the tank where the vent was supposed to go, allowing the glycerol and methanol vapors to escape. Those vapors caught fire when Black ignited his cutting torch and then spread to the flammable gases inside the tank, causing the explosion, according to the sheriff's reports.


Worker electrocuted in construction accident

Monticello, UT -- A Monticello man was electrocuted while working on new construction on the College of Eastern Utah campus. Kim Lyle Hoggard, 50, was installing telephone and computer cable last Friday when the accident occurred, Blanding Police Chief Mike Halliday said Thursday. Hoggard was flown to a Salt Lake area hospital where he later died. Investigators could not determine how the incident occurred though the medical examiner confirmed the cause of death, Halliday said. Hoggard, who graduated from Hillcrest High School in 1974, was married with three children and five grandchildren.


OSHA looks into death of Igloo worker

Katy, TX-- The Occupational Safety & Health Administration is investigating the June 23 death of a worker in the blow molding department of Igloo Products Corp.'s plant in Katy, Texas.

"To the best of our knowledge, it is the first fatal accident'' in the company's 59-year history, said Nicole Fiori, general counsel for Igloo Products. Fiori said the worker had 10 years of experience. The blow molding department makes cooler parts.

Fiori would not comment further on the investigation. But Houston-based television station KPRC's Local 2 affiliate in Katy reported that an unidentified maintenance worker was crushed while fixing a machine.


Police investigate officer-involved shooting

Columbus, OH -- Wayne Furr was shot and killed during a confrontation with police Thursday. Police said officers responded to a call around 1:12 a.m. about a suspicious vehicle. Police responded to the call and discovered a white truck backed into a nearby communications tower owned by Alltel.

The door to the building was open and lights were on inside. Officer Payne looked through the doorway and saw a man, later identified as Anthony Wayne Furr, 41, inside. Sprint confirmed that it was the contracted worker, Furr, who worked for AFL Network Securities. Furr was authorized to be at the tower, but according to CMPD spokesperson Keith Bridges, Furr did not follow officers' orders as they approached him.

Bridges said the officers told Furr not to move. "[Furr] stood up, reached behind his back, pulled out a handgun," said Bridges. Bridges said the two officers told Furr to drop the gun. Police said he did not comply with the orders, but instead, raised the handgun and walked towards the officers. Police said ten-year veteran Anthony Payne fired three shots at Wayne Furr, who died at the scene.


Man Found Dead In Baling Machine

DOWNINGTOWN, Pa. -- A man is dead after a freak accident at a packaging plant. The man's body was found inside a baling machine at the Alcoa Packaging plant in Downingtown.

Downingtown investigators are trying to determine if the employee died of natural causes or from falling into the baler. It took employees and rescue crews 45 minutes to get the man out of baling machine, but it was too late. He was already dead.


One dead in industrial accident

Albuquerque, NM -- Bernalillo County deputies report that one man died Monday morning in an industrial accident in southeast Albuquerque.

Deputies were called to the Brown-Minneapolis Tank Manufacturing Company in the 8300 block of Broadway SE at about 11:15 a.m. Deputies say the victim, 48-year-old Stephen McTavish, was doing touch-up work on a large, metal gate when it fell on him.

The exact details of the accident remain under investigation. The precise cause of the accident will likely be determined by the OSHA.


Worker Crushed By Falling Trailer

MEAD VALLEY, Calif. A trucker died after being crushed by a trailer he was working on. The accident occurred about 2 p.m. at a thoroughbred horse property in the 21800 block of Webster Avenue. Jeremy Mattsen of Bajo Trucking was crushed when the double-wide mobile home trailer he was working on, shifted and fell on top of him. He suffered injuries to his head, chest and legs and died a short time later at Riverside County Regional Medical Center in Moreno Valley.


2 Killed By Fumes In Abandoned El Dorado Mine

El Dorado County, CA -- The names of the victims killed in an abandoned gold mine in Eldorado County have been released. Howard James Burtle, 49, and Theresa Lyn Bishop, 32, were killed Tuesday evening after they were overcome by gas fumes in an abandoned gold mine in El Dorado County.

A both victims were employees of a private water company, were doing some road work and decided to fill their water tanker with water from the abandoned mine behind 4941 Starke Grade Rd near Newtown, El Dorado County. The two brought a pump into the mine and when they started it, they were overcome by gas fumes.

Bishop was reportedly able to get out of the mine and notify someone nearby of the situation. She went back into the mine and was again overcome by the fumes.
Both died from their injuries. Two dogs that were with the two also died.


Rural Xenia Farmer Dies in Tractor Accident

Xenia, IL - A rural Xenia farmer died Monday night when the tractor he was using to bush hog a creek bank overturned and crushed him. 51-year-old Gregg Burgess was pronounced dead at the scene. The accident happened about a mile and a half north of Orchardville, in Wayne County, and was reported around 9:00 Monday night. Wayne County Deputy Coroner Bob Howell says Burgess died instantly. Howell says Burgess's wife went to look for him and found him underneath the tractor. He says others on a small dirt-moving tractor nearby had lifted Burgess's tractor off him before emergency help arrived. An inquest will be held at a later date.


Worker Found Dead Inside Business

HANOVER, Md. -- Anne Arundel County police said a man was discovered dead inside a business in Hanover on Wednesday morning. Police said a co-worker found the body at Kidz-In-The-Biz -- a talent agency on New Ridge Road. They said the victim, a white man in his 50s, had trauma to his upper body. The name of the victim is being withheld pending notification of next of kin. An autopsy will be completed to determine the cause of death.


Road construction worker killed by hit-and-run driver

DECATUR, Ga. - One construction worker was killed and another was injured when they were struck by a car while working on a road widening project in DeKalb County, police said Wednesday. Sirlento Smith, 30, was charged with felony homicide by vehicle and hit-and-run, DeKalb Police spokesman Herschel J. Grangent Jr. said. Police said Angel Vasquez, 29, was pronounced dead on the scene following the Tuesday accident. Erasto Trujillo Monterrosa, believed to be 22 years old, was injured. "According to witnesses, the driver of the Pontiac was westbound on Redan Road when he struck two workers," Grangent said. He said the driver lost control, went into some woods and then started running, but was captured.


General Mills accident kills Manchester man

MANCHESTER, IA --- An accident at the General Mills plant in Cedar Rapids killed a Delaware County man. Christopher Kluesner, 42, of Manchester, was electrocuted Saturday. Linn County Medical Examiner Dr. Donald Linder ruled that Kluesner died of cardiac arrest caused by accidental electrocution.


Beam falls on two workers, killing one

LONGMONT, CO - A 26-year-old construction worker from Denver was killed and another man injured when a steel support beam fell on them at a home under construction near Longmont. The men were working at a new subdivision north of Longmont near U.S. 287 and Vermilion Road. Other workers were able to lift the beam enough to get the two men out from under it. One of the men was flown to Denver Health Medical Center, where he died. He was not identified. Jose Ortega, 22, of Loveland was taken to Longmont United Hospital with moderate injuries.


Worker struck, killed by car while entering Appliance Park

Louisville, KY - A 51-year-old woman was killed yesterday when she was struck by a car on her way into General Electric Appliance Park near Poplar Level and Fern Valley roads. Regenia Sommers, of the 5600 block of Indian Oaks Circle, was pronounced dead at the scene just before 6 a.m., said Eddie Robinson, a Jefferson County deputy coroner. Sommers died of multiple blunt-force injuries. Investigators believe Sommers, who was a contract worker at GE, was struck after getting off a TARC bus near an entrance to an access road on the property, said Officer Dwight Mitchell, a Louisville Metro Police spokesman.


Farm workers back to work after cousin's fatal stabbing

HAMMONTON, NJ — On Saturday night, Pedro Gomez Hernandez was slashed in the face with a knife and Augusin Hernandez Gomez took a punch to the head, authorities said. Their 19-year-old cousin Marcelino Gomez Perez was stabbed to death during a fight authorities said they tried to stop. On Monday morning, Hernandez, 19, and Gomez, 21, were back working at the same farm where they live, at the same farm where they were hurt and their cousin died. “They didn't have to if they didn't want to, but they did,” said Tommy DelRossi, third-generation owner of Bridge Avenue Farms on Pleasant Mills Road. Perez's body will be sent back to family in Mexico this week, DelRossi said. His cousins and about 100 co-workers at the farm are continuing on, trying to make a living at a small blueberry farm that for many of them is thousands of miles from home. Jesus Ramirez, 21, was arraigned on murder charges Monday before Superior Court Judge Michael Donio, Atlantic County Prosecutor Jeffrey S. Blitz said. Ramirez was arrested the morning after the fight when police found him in a portable toilet at the end of a night-long search.



Roofing worker dies following fall

ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. -- A man who fell while working on a roof at the Isle of Palms last week has died. The Charleston County Coroner's Office says 45-year-old Gregorio Mendoza died in a hospital Sunday. Deputy Coroner Dottie Lindsay says Mendoza had been working on a home when he fell at least 15 feet and hit the concrete around 6 p-m Friday. A spokesman says the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration will investigate the workplace death.


Service set for victim of flash fire

Mobile, AL - A memorial service will be held today for a Daphne man who died four days after being injured in an industrial fire. Billy Evert Jr., 26, a native of New York, died Friday at the University of South Alabama Medical Center, according to a hospital spokeswoman. Evert was injured in a flash fire July 18 at Delta Stone on Halls Mill Road, said Steve Huffman, Mobile Fire Department spokesman.


Repair-shop accident probed

HAMPDEN, MA - An accident in which a student at Minnechaug Regional High School was killed in an auto-repair shop remained under investigation yesterday. A spokesman for the Hampden County district attorney's office said investigators are awaiting autopsy results. The funeral for Dean Joseph Dangleis, 17, of 64 Bennet Road, Wilbraham, was set for Friday at 10:30 a.m. at St. Mary's Church in Hampden. Police said Dangleis, a senior, was pronounced dead at Bill's Auto Repair, at 204 Main St., after a truck fell off a lift and struck him in the head. Dangleis was working for his father, William Dangleis, who owns the shop.


Man killed at DP&L I.D.'d as Sidney Ware

Aberdeen, OH - A Brooksville man was killed last Tuesday afternoon at DP&L's Stuart Station near Aberdeen. Sidney A Ware, 49, was removing ash from a pond at the station, when ash from the side of the pond slid, trapping him in a back hoe. Ash from the power plant is put in the pond daily. Occasionally, the pond is drained and the ash is recycled. "Our deepest sympathies go out to Mr. Ware's family," said Tom Tatham, a DP&L spokesman. "Our thoughts are with them. This type of event touches all of us in this company." Ware was taken by ambulance to Maysville Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Ware works for VFL Technologies and not Dayton Power and Light.


Officer Dies After Being Hit By Car, Semi

Haines City, FL - A Haines City police officer died Wednesday after he was struck by a hit-and-run driver and then hit again by a passing tractor-trailer, according to a Local 6 News report. Florida Highway Patrol officials said the officer was hit as he rode his motorcycle near the Osceola-Polk county lines on Highway 17-92. The driver left the scene of the crash, leaving the injured officer in the road, the report said. The officer was then hit by a semi. Hundreds of officers paid their respects today to a San Francisco policeman killed on the job. Today we discovered that a suspect in his death was able to buy his way to freedom -- on the installment plan.


Man charged with murder in Jewish agency shootings

SEATTLE,WA - Prosecutors Wednesday charged Naveed Haq with aggravated first-degree murder and five counts of first-degree attempted murder in last week's shooting at the Jewish Federation offices in Seattle. Haq is accused of killing Pamela Waechter, 58, and injuring five other women after forcing his way into the federation's office just after 4 p.m. PDT Friday and randomly shooting employees. Aggravated first-degree murder is punishable by either the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of release. Haq, 30, has also been charged with first-degree kidnapping for holding a gun to the back of a 14-year-old girl to force his way into the building; one charge of first-degree burglary and malicious harassment, the felony charge for a hate crime.


OSHA continues probe of United Rentals accident

Lebanon, PA - Officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are continuing their investigation into last week’s death of a worker at a Lebanon business. Dwight Druschel, 63, of Mt. Zion Road was killed Friday afternoon when a 55-gallon, metal drum he was cutting with an acetylene torch exploded at United Rentals, 940 Cornwall Road. All work-related fatalities and accidents resulting in three or more employees being admitted to the hospital are investigated by OSHA, said Bob Fink, director of the Harrisburg regional office, which covers 14 mid-state counties.


Forklift operator not at fault in fatal mishap: Coroner

Columbus, MS - Officials have ruled the death of a Texas man killed July 26 at the sprawling SeverCorr construction site near Golden Triangle Regional Airport was the result of an industrial accident. “They found no fault with the operator or anything,” Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant said today. About 11 a.m., Tony Vic Chebalier, 46, of Palestine, Texas, was run over by a 30,000-pound Skytrack forklift at the 1,400-acre site. Investigators believe a site foreman was “pulling forward” in the machine, which “cuts real sharp,” when Chebalier was snagged on the lower leg, falling into the path of the vehicle, Merchant said.


Verizon Worker Dies Of Injuries

PROVIDENCE, RI -- The Verizon worker who was shocked while installing fiber lines in July has died from his injuries. The utility worker badly burned when his truck struck power lines on Oxford Street in Providence died Tuesday. Verizon officials said Joseph Allard was injured when his bucket truck struck a power line and burst into flames. Firefighters said he was burned on more than 80 percent of his body. Allard was reportedly using an umbrella to shade himself from the sun on what was a very hot day. Verizon said in a statement Wednesday that Allard had been a dedicated employee for 12 years.


PennDOT Worker Killed on Jobsite

Union City, PA - A PennDOT worker was killed at a Union City highway construction site Tuesday morning after being hit by a truck.The victim is identified as 48-year-old Earl Chandler of Meadville. State Police say Chandler was run over by the rear wheels of a dump truck driven by 46-year-old Richard Lehman of Erie as he was backing onto the highway at around 8:00 Tuesday morning. Chandler was flown by LifeStar helicopter to Hamot Medical Center where he died of his injuries.The accident remains under investigation. PennDOT says Chandler had worked for the Transportation Department since 1987. He leaves behind a wife and three daughters.


Nightclub Worker Dies In Drowning Accident

ESSINGTON, Pa. -- A worker at a popular waterside nightclub dies after he apparently falls from a boat at work. Police say Joseph Sakers, 41, of Tinicum Township was working at the marina docks at The Lagoon, a popular nightspot in Essington, Pa., on Tuesday morning. Witnesses told police that Sakers held onto the boat for a short period of time but then attempted to swim toward a dock. As he struggled, a co-worker swam out to meet Sakers but he was unable to help him. Rescuers arrived on the scene from the Essington Fire Company. They found Sakers body around 10:30 a.m. At 8:52 a.m., police say Sakers was in a small boat and he accidentally fell into the water.


Worker dies after fall from gutted apartment building

TUSCALOOSA, AL A construction worker died Monday after a three-story fall from a University Downs apartment building, police said. Chris Brewer, 33, died within two hours of the fall, which occurred about 1:30 p.m. at Building 100 at the apartment complex off 15th Street.


Couple Found Shot Dead At School

TAMPA, FL - Luis Rodriguez last saw his parents alive before they left home before dawn Monday. His father, Alfredo Rodriguez, always drove his mother, Ada, to work at Young Middle Magnet School about 5 a.m. The school does not open for classes until Thursday, but Ada Rodriguez, who was the lunchroom manager, and about 30 teachers were there for a planning day. Tampa police told Luis Rodriguez that a deliveryman found his parents dead in the school parking lot at 1807 E. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. about 6:20 a.m. Standing outside the family's home at 907 E. 24th Ave. about noon Monday, Rodriguez struggled to make sense of their deaths. At 19, he is the oldest of their six children.


Construction Worker Killed At Marley Middle School

GLEN BURNIE, Md. A 70-year-old construction worker was killed after the excavator he was operating overturned at an Anne Arundel County construction site, WJZ.com has learned. Police tell WJZ Eyewitness News that the accident occurred about 4 p.m. at the new Marley Middle School construction site in Glen Burnie. It happened while construction workers tore down an old section of the school. The excavator the worker was using apparently flipped onto its side after it had driven over a four-foot deep crawl space, pinning the driver underneath. He was pronounced dead a short time later.


Fired employee arrested in slaying

Baton Rouge, LA -- The Popeyes Chicken & Biscuit restaurant at 3777 Choctaw Drive was surrounded by yellow tape that read “Police line, do not cross,” when Stephanie Watson arrived Monday afternoon to pick up her paycheck. Eager to find out what was going on, and with no one around to ask, Watson and her boyfriend ducked under the tape and looked in the restaurant’s windows. What they saw inside caused Watson to ask herself if she wants to return to work Wednesday. “There was blood everywhere,” she said. Watson, 20, later learned that her boss, 51-year-old Andrew London, was shot and stabbed about an hour after she got off work Sunday night and that he later died at a local hospital.


Impounded bus rolls over tow-truck driver

Aurora, Co - A public bus passed through a red light last week and smashed into a car, witnesses say, critically injuring an 82-year-old woman. Then, just four hours after the bus was impounded Thursday, it rolled over the tow-truck driver at the impound lot. The driver, Richard Gillard, 38, died Saturday from his injuries. Gillard had lowered the Regional Transportation District bus to the ground, and it rolled forward as he was unhooking it from his tow truck, said friend and co-worker Kirk Richardson. Gillard was pinned for several minutes beneath the left front tire, Richardson said. Gillard was unconscious when paramedics arrived but was later revived. His family removed him from life support Saturday.


Marlborough resident killed in logging accident, Man was apparently struck in the head by falling tree and died at the scene

GREENVILLE, NH – A Marlborough man died Friday afternoon following an apparent logging accident in Greenville, according to Greenville police. Richard Cumings, 52, of Maple Lane, died after he was struck by a falling tree in a wooded lot around 161 Merriam Hill Road, where he had been clearing trees with his son Jeffrey Cumings, 24. The two men, who work for the elder Cumings’ trucking and excavating company, were doing work to prepare for a house addition for the property owner, said Greenville police Sgt. Richard D’Auria.

I-77 tractor-trailer explosion kills driver

Kenna, WV - One person was killed about noon today when his truck slammed into another tractor-trailer in the northbound lanes of Interstate 77 just south of Kenna. The driver's identity was not immediately known.


Sign installer dies from electrical shock

NORTH SIOUX CITY, IA -- A sign installer died Friday after receiving an electrical shock at a North Sioux City business. Shawn Moorhouse, 28, of Sioux City, died at Mercy Medical Center -- Sioux City from injuries he received Friday afternoon. North Sioux City Police Officer Rich Headid said police received a call at 4:14 p.m. that an employee of a Sioux City sign installation company had been injured at Chester Fried, a fast-food restaurant at 1312 River Drive. Moorhouse had been installing a new sign on the building. Headid said the accident remains under investigation.


Volunteer Firefighter Killed in Accident

Malverne, NY - A volunteer firefighter at the Malverne Fire Department was killed Sunday morning when he was crushed between a fire truck and the building he was working at, according to Nassau police. Authorities say 42-year-old Paul Brady was performing routine maintenance on a Malverne rescue truck when he fell off the truck as it was pulling away from the building. Brady, who suffered massive trauma, was transported to Nassau University Medical Center where he was pronounced dead shortly after 2 p.m. Chief Robert Meyer, 58, who was driving the truck at the time of the incident, was not charged.


Pilot dies when plane skids off runway

Hickory, NC - The pilot of a single-engine Korean War-era fighter jet died Monday when the airplane skidded off a runway at Hickory Regional Airport, crashed and exploded. Close friends and the pilot's pastor identified him as Wyatt Fuller, a vintage-airplane buff who was headed to an air show in Oshkosh, Wis., when the crash happened. He was piloting a 1954 F-86 Sabre made in Canada. Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board arrived on the scene late Monday afternoon. The crash was reported to emergency officials at 11:42 a.m. Flames had engulfed the plane when firefighters from the airport got to the scene two minutes later, said Hickory Fire Department spokesman Terri Byers. The pilot had been attempting takeoff down one of the airport's two runways when the crash happened, Byers said. The plane carried a full load of about 800 gallons of fuel.


Worker dies in fall from window, He allegedly jumped from fourth floor

New Orleans, LA - An Ohio man doing post-Katrina construction in the area plunged to his death early Saturday from the fourth-floor window of a Kenner apartment where he lived and worked, according to a Kenner Police Department statement. Responding to a complaint that someone had jumped from the building at 1919 Veterans Memorial Blvd., police found Earl D. Koon of Canton, Ohio, lying dead in the building's east parking lot. They were told by witnesses that Koon and other members of his construction crew have been living in the building, located between Williams Boulevard and the Airport Access Road, while they remodel it.


Worker Dies as Garage Collapses in Queens

Queens, NY - A construction worker was killed yesterday and two others briefly trapped when a garage collapsed as they were laying a foundation for an apartment building in Queens, engulfing a work crew in a cloud of collapsing bricks and concrete, the authorities said. The dead worker was pulled from the rubble and placed in a white shroud on a stretcher. The man’s name was not immediately available because he had no identification with him, a law enforcement official said. The wounded worker, Ashbourne McPherson, 46, of Cambria Heights, Queens, was taken to Mary Immaculate Hospital in stable condition with injuries to his right side. The name and whereabouts of the third worker, who was also pulled from the debris, were not immediately known.


Talent agent's shooting a mystery

HANOVER, Md. -- Investigators are still unsure of the motive for the killing of a Maryland talent agent found dead in his office. Richard Shaw, owner of the Annapolis-area Kidz in the Biz, was shot. His body was discovered by an employee arriving for work Wednesday morning. Shaw's business was the target of at least 22 complaints filed with consumer agencies in Maryland, The Baltimore Sun reported. In one case, parents complained that they paid him more than $1,400 for head shots of their daughter but never received the photographs. On his Web site, Shaw touted modeling as an easy path to fame and big checks. He also claimed to have a business relationship with Halle Berry's agent, although Vincent Cirrincione told the Sun he was about to go to court to get his name removed. The business had recently filed for bankruptcy, the newspaper said.


Two men killed at Carroll County plant

Carroll County, KY - Two men fell about 80 feet to their deaths Friday at the North American Stainless Plant in Carroll County. The men were tack-welding roof panels onto a building expansion at the plant at the time of the accident, according to Steve Sparrow with the Kentucky Occupational Safety and Health Administration office. Carroll County Coroner Jim Dunn identified the victims as Matthew Collins, 21, of Williamstown, and Rickie Diets Jr., 27, of Vevay, Ind. The men were employees with United Group Services Inc., based in Cincinnati, according to Kevin Sell, director of employee development for the company.


Man dies at mine; accident probed

ADAMS, MA — A local contract employee died during an industrial accident at Specialty Minerals Inc. on Thursday, and federal regulators are investigating the incident. Jason Houran, 25, of Brown Street was involved in the accident around 11:30 a.m., according to a press release from the Adams Police Department. When ambulance and police arrived, Specialty Minerals employees were trying to help the victim. Houran was pronounced dead later at North Adams Regional Hospital. Few details about the cause of the accident were available yesterday. Adams Police said the incident is under investigation by the Occupational Safety Hazard Administration and the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration.


Veteran steelworker dies, Mittal conducting investigation into accident

BURNS HARBOR, IN -- A veteran operating technician was killed in an accident at Mittal Steel's Burns Harbor plant Friday. About 10:30 a.m., Kevin Sullivan, 50, of LaPorte, was caught between a machine that opens and closes one of the facility's oven doors, according to Mittal spokesman David Allen. Sullivan suffered serious injuries and was taken to Porter hospital in Valparaiso, where he died about 3 p.m., Allen said. The Porter County coroner's office did not have any additional information.


S.F. police officer dies of injuries suffered in chase

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - A San Francisco police officer has died of injuries suffered in a crash during a chase. Police say the officer was injured when he crashed his squad car in San Francisco's Bay view district early this morning. The officer was in pursuit of three robbery suspects. Police say the chase began in San Francisco, went south on Interstate 280 then continued back into the city. The chase came to an end when the officer and a van driven by the suspects crashed at Felton and Cambridge. The name of the officer has not been released.


Paramedic killed on way to work

HANOVER TWP. OH - Paramedic Mark Baden peered into the wreckage of the little red car and shuddered at what he saw: A fellow medic trapped inside. "We came up and didn't recognize the car because it was too demolished," he said. "I went over to the car and looked in, and realized it was Rose - I've known her probably about 20 years ... I had to block it out of my mind and do what we could to save her. "I told the guys, 'Cut the door off.' " But Rose A. Woodbridge, 56, of Oxford, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash Friday morning on Old Oxford Road, only 100 yards away from her destination: the Hanover Township fire station. An emergency medical technician and volunteer firefighter for Hanover Township, Woodbridge apparently lost control on a wet road and crashed into a utility pole, investigators said.


Truck driver killed by semi on I-95, A wrecker employee is seriously injured in the accident.

PALM CITY, FL — A tractor-trailer driver died Friday evening after he ran out of gas on Interstate 95 and was hit by a second truck that blew a tire as it passed his parked rig, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. An employee of a wrecker company who delivered fuel to the scene was also hit and seriously injured. He was taken by helicopter to St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, but his condition was not available Friday night.


Construction worker dies from injuries

SCRANTON, PA — A construction worker who got pinned between a compact excavator and dump truck July 18 has died of his injuries. Thomas Teeple, of 22 Franklin Ave., Carbondale, died at Community Medical Center on Friday about 1:25 p.m. as a result of “multiple traumatic injuries,” according to Lackawanna County Deputy Coroner Tim Rowland. Mr. Teeple, 42, was part of a Linde Enterprises Inc. construction crew installing a gas line in front of the state attorney general’s consumer protection office at 101 Penn Ave. when the accident occurred. He had worked for Linde for about 12 years, foreman Dave Lewis said.


Fall from ladder claims man's life

PORTSMOUTH, NH -- The 55-year-old painter who fell off a ladder on Monday has died from his injuries. Steven Benedict, 55, of Kittery, Maine, was taken to Portsmouth Regional Hospital on Monday afternoon and died on Tuesday. Benedict was painting a house at 44 Humphreys Court when he fell almost 20 feet off a ladder. The ladder was propped up on a porch roof to enable Benedict to reach the roof of the house, police had said.


Friends, Co-Workers Lament Cab Driver's Shooting Death

INDIANAPOLIS, IN -- Bright yellow cabs are marked with black flags of mourning following the death of a Yellow Cab driver Wednesday night. Clarence Hoosier, 57, had worked for the company for 25 years. He served as a deacon in his church and was a valued friend to residents at a retirement home, 6News' Linda Allen reported.


Construction worker dies after falling at Ankeny site

ANKENY, Iowa - Polk County medical officials say a construction worker who was fatally injured when he fell through a staircase opening has died. Twenty-eight-year-old Bryan Ruan (ROO-ahn) fell from the second story of the construction site in Ankeny on July 28th. He was transported to Iowa Methodist Medical Center, where he died on Sunday. That's according to Doctor Gregory Schmunk, the Polk County medical examiner. Ruan was a great nephew of Des Moines businessman John Ruan the second.


Man dies in industrial accident

Providence, RI - A worker has died at an industrial site in Providence after being struck by a piece of steel. It happened at Capco Steel shortly before 11 a-m. Company officials on site refused to comment. Police Lieutenant Jack Vony says the man died. He did not identify him. A compliance officer with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration was on scene to investigate this afternoon. The area director for OSHA, Patrick Griffin, says the office has six months to complete an investigation.


Steelworker killed in Decatur crane accident identified

DECATUR, Ala. — Police have identified the crane operator killed by a falling beam at a Decatur business as a 29-year-old Falkville man. Jeremiah Nathaniel Brown was working at Steel Related Technology in Decatur when a cable broke while his crane was lifting a steel beam around 8 a.m. Wednesday, authorities said. The beam fell on Brown, who later died at Huntsville Hospital. "From our preliminary investigation, we believe this was an unfortunate industrial accident and do not expect any criminal charges to be filed," Decatur police Lt. Chris Matthews told The Huntsville Times for a story on its Web site Thursday.


CHP continues probe of Los Gatos accident that killed S.J. man

Los Gatos, CA - The California Highway Patrol today continues to probe the death of 78-year-old Vernon Anzalone of San Jose, who died when his flatbed truck rolled backward down a 45-degree slope on a rural private property near Los Gatos on Thursday morning, CHP officer Steve Perea said. ``Was it a mechanical failure with the truck or did he somehow have a medical condition that made him unable to stop the truck? Those are possibilities we're looking into,'' Perea said. It seems likely that the truck struck Anzalone after he was ejected about 50 feet down the embankment, Perea said, noting that the truck continued moving, eventually stopping some 250 feet from the edge of the roadway, Perea said. A Santa Clara County medical examiner could not immediately tell what killed Anzalone, and expected to perform an autopsy within a week, Perea said.


Man welding killed in Wasilla fuel tank explosion

Wasilla, AK - A 48-year-old man is dead after a fuel tank he was welding exploded at a Wasilla boat building shop. Central Mat-Su Fire Chief Jack Krill says the accident occurred just after 4 p.m. Thursday. According to Krill, the welder and another employee were working on the fuel tank on a fishing boat when the explosion occurred. Krill says somehow there was gas residue or enough mixture of gas and air to cause an explosion. The other man bumped his head, but had no major injuries. The name of the dead man -- a Wasilla resident -- has not been released. Wasilla police say the two men appeared to have taken the appropriate safety precautions.


OSHA Investigates Separate Workplace Falling Deaths

Savannah, GA -Chatham police and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are investigating a deadly accident at a Garden City plant. Just after 9am this morning, police say a worker fell through the roof of a building at the GAF Materials plant on Brampton Road. Representatives with the OSHA as well as police tell WTOC a worker with MPW Industrial Cleaning was doing work on a roof when somehow he fell through and died from his injuries. OSHA says its investigation is ongoing, and it is trying to determine how the accident happened, if it could have been prevented, and if any OSHA standards were violated.


Air-conditioning repairman dies

WESTTOWN, PA -- A male employee of a local air-conditioning company died while attending to an air-conditioning unit at a residence on Sage Road on Thursday morning, according to police. Westtown-East Goshen Police Det. William Cahill confirmed the death on Thursday afternoon, but he did not have any information regarding the cause of death or the employee’s name, age or residence.The man worked for Donnelly Heating & Air Conditioning, with offices in West Chester.An employee on Thursday afternoon said the company did not know much about the incident. "The police have a report," the employee said. "We don’t know what happened, but it looks like it was an accident." Police said an autopsy was planned for Thursday night.


Oaklander dies in tractor accident

SAN LORENZO, CA — An Oakland man died Thursday while working on an Oro Loma Sanitary District construction project. A construction tractor struck Rudy Morales, 67, around 9 a.m. Thursday. He was hurt but was talking and moving after the accident, said Mike Cameron, general manager of the Oro Loma Sanitary District. Morales was taken to the hospital and was pronounced dead at 2:16 p.m. The coroner will conduct an autopsy this afternoon to determine the exact cause of death. Morales was employed for eight to 10 years by Oakland-based general contractor Monterey Mechanical Co. His colleagues there were devastated by his death, said Jim Troup, vice president of the company. The man who was driving the tractor that hit Morales also was a Monterey employee.


One dead, one seriously hurt in Endicott blast

ENDICOTT, NY -- A routine procedure ended in a tragedy Thursday, leaving one maintenance worker dead and another seriously burned at the Huron Real Estate Associates campus in Endicott. "We're obviously devastated. We're doing our best to deal with the employee who was burned and reach out to the families," said James Sullivan, vice president of human resources for Huron Real Estate Associates and Endicott Interconnect Technologies. The four-story building houses about 300 employees from IBM, EI and Fidelity Investments. The accident took place in the building's mechanical room. Marion Korcipa, 54, of Endicott, died in the explosion, while Ronald Walter, 58, of Brackney, Pa., was seriously injured. The two maintenance workers were doing routine repair work to a pressurized steam pipe in Building 14 on the Huron campus, 1301 North St., at the time of the accident, Sullivan said. A high pressure steam valve adjacent to the one they were working on ruptured, Sullivan said, filling the room with shrapnel and steam.


Officer Dies After Ambulance Wreck

Atlanta, GA - A 29-year-old Atlanta police officer who suffered serious head injuries in a collision with an ambulance on July 21 died of his injuries Thursday evening, police officials confirmed on Friday. Officer Peter Faatz was on duty when his cruiser collided with an ambulance that was heading to the same scene of a fatal shooting. The wreck happened at Hank Aaron Drive and Milton Avenue. Officer Faatz had been hospitalized in ICU at Grady Memorial Hospital from the time of the accident until he died at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Faatz had been with the Atlanta Police Department since April of 2005 and was assigned to the Zone 3 Precinct. Police said both vehicles were traveling at a high rate of speed and the officer's car was demolished after hitting the ambulance. The Atlanta Mayor's Office released the following statement after news that Officer Faatz died:


Truck driver killed by load, Dover man crushed when log skidders come loose

Dover, TN - A 61-year-old Dover man was killed Wednesday when logging equipment he was hauling crushed the cab of his tractor-trailer rig. Glenn Pulley of 1149 Long Creek Road, Dover, was hauling two log skidders on a flatbed trailer when a chain securing the one closest to the cab broke, said Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Larry Gladden. The accident happened at about 4:20 p.m. on Dover Road at the access road to the Montgomery County landfill. Initial investigations by THP indicate Pulley may have tapped on his brakes shortly before the log skidder broke loose and rolled forward onto the back of the cab, crushing the top, Gladden said. Pulley's right turn signal was on when the wreck happened, Gladden added.


Sheriff's Office To Review Policy After Deputy Killed

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- The Orange County Sheriff's Office said it's going to review how it handles speeders because of the death of a deputy. Deputy Michael Callin died Wednesday after he was hit by a driver he tried to pull over Tuesday afternoon. New details show the 19-year-old driver may have intentionally hit Callin. The passengers who were in the car with 19-year-old Allan Barahona said he had time to stop before striking the deputy. Traffic officers often step in front of cars they've clocked at speeds over the limit to get them to stop. Different departments have different policies and procedures, but no department is going to ask an officer on foot to risk his life by stepping in front of a speeding car.


DelDOT Worker Dies Days After Falling From Utility Trailer

WILMINGTON, Del. -- State police said a state Department of Transportation worker who fell off a utility trailer on US Route 13 last week has died from her injuries. Beverly Wooters fell from a trailer connected to a truck on July 25, after the driver made a U-turn on US Route 13 about a mile south of Harrington. Police said the 39-year-old from Dover and the truck's driver, 51-year-old Spencer Kelley, of Magnolia, had been placing traffic cones on the road before the accident, but were not doing so at the time it occurred.


Construction worker killed by cement truck

San Antonio, TX -- A 46-year-old construction worker was killed Thursday morning when a cement truck struck him in the head, sheriff's deputies said. The man, who name was not released pending notification of his family, was working for Schultz Concrete Pumping Inc. at a site in the 11100 block of Dublin Ledge, said Bexar County Sheriff's Detective Robert Garza. A boom that pours cement to make concrete slabs somehow shifted and crashed into the man's head, Garza said.


Construction Worker Killed By Falling Granite

LOUISVILLE, KY-- Authorities say a construction worker was killed Thursday when a slab of granite being unloaded from a truck fell on him outside Cardinal Kitchens in the 200 block of east Wampum Avenue. WAVE 3's Frances Kuo investigates. Deputy Coroner Bob Jones says the victim was 42-year-old Timmie Neals of Louisville. Jones says there will be an autopsy Friday in connection with the death. He says six slabs of granite were being unloaded from a truck and the load shifted, striking Neals. Neals was rushed to University Hospital but died in the emergency room around 8:44 a.m. from his injuries.


San Francisco Police Officer Dies In Chase

San Francisco, CA - San Francisco police are releasing more details about the death of a police officer this morning. Police Chief Heather Fong says the officer was not involved in a police chase, but was in the area when his squad car was hit by a van being chased by other officers. Fong says the van was being chased by other officers because it was believed to contain four suspects involved in a robbery a little after midnight. The chase had started on Bayshore Boulevard, heading south on Interstate 280, then came back into the city. The chase came to an end in the crash at Felton and Cambridge. The officer was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where he died. His name has not been released. Four suspects in the van were taken into custody.


Construction worker killed at work site

Washington, PA -- A 47-year-old construction worker fell about 80 feet to his death yesterday morning in Washington, Pa., at a site that's part of a major redevelopment project in the city. Kenneth Steven Madison, of Washington, was pronounced dead at the site, where work was shut down for the remainder of the day. At 10:42 a.m., Mr. Madison fell from a scaffold on the outside of the eight-story Nationwide Center, an $18 million building going up on the corner of Beau and Franklin streets, police Chief John Haddad said. The building is part of the Crossroads Project, a $100 million, 14-block renovation project proposed by developer Jack Piatt.


Woman Killed On I-480 Was Proud To Work Construction

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- Deborah Sommerville Kane was killed Monday while working in a construction zone on Interstate 480 near I-77. The Lakewood woman was hit by a truck that was bringing supplies for road crews, NewsChannel5 reported. Kane's family said she was very loved and is very missed. Her daughters, Mary and Samantha, said their mother was proud to be a construction worker, a member of Local 860 and a member of the Hard Hatted Women. Kane, 48, won awards for excellence in her field.