Flexco faces $100K in fines after worker suffers amputation
The steel fabrication company received eight citations from the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration in a safety order issued last month. Inspections were carried out at the facility at 2415 Bryant St. between the date of the July incident and Aug. 28.
The list of proposed penalties includes $63,000 for a knowing and serious violation for failure to provide machine guarding to protect employees. Machine guarding was not adequate to protect an employee from making contact with the moving parts of a roller leveler, according to the safety order, which was not made public until this week.
An employee operating the machine suffered an amputation on July 22. The penalty was elevated because the company received a similar citation for lack of machine guarding a month earlier.
Flexco also failed to record that the worker had experienced an amputation, drawing another violation with a proposed penalty of $900, according to the order.
Other penalties included a serious violation for failure to keep a walking surface free of hazards, as the floor had a large standing puddle of coolant on it. The serious violation carries a proposed penalty of $6,300.
Another serious safety violation with a $6,300 proposed penalty was given for failure to maintain copies of safety data sheets for hazardous chemicals used in the workplace, including coolant and propane.
The company failed to provide a hazard communication program for Spanish-speaking employees in their native language, resulting in them not being fully trained on the safe use of chemicals, and failed to provide proper training in Spanish on walkway surfaces, according to the order. Both violations carry a $6,300 proposed penalty.
Two serious violations with a proposed penalty of $5,400 were also handed down in the order. Flexco failed to retrain or evaluate powered forklift operators after three years beyond their initial certification or previous evaluation, and a fire exit was found to be blocked by pallets and steel material.
Flexco was given until Feb. 14 to abate the violations.
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