When You Say “Accident” Perhaps You Mean “Crime”

So said the Colorado School of Mines Magazine, Golden, Colorado, exactly 100 years ago (August 1918 edition).

The gruesome photos above capture the death of a worker in 2014. His skull was fractured and body part severed (between his body and the crew, where none of the men are able to face the victim due to the horror).

Last week, several employers were heavily fined for reckless safety practices. A brief summary follows.

Aug. 3 ― OSHA proposed $588,000 in penalties against an Illinois adhesives maker. The Frankfort, Illinois adhesives manufacturer was cited for 18 health and safety violations, including failing to provide employees with respirator fit tests and respirators appropriate for hazardous environments, failing to follow safety precautions when transferring flammable liquids, and failing to ensure that electrical equipment was approved for use in hazardous atmospheres.

Aug. 3 ― Dallas Dollar Tree was cited for locking an emergency exit. This very practice led to the fiery deaths of 25 employees in Hamlet, NC in 1991. Dallas Dollar Tree faces a proposed fine of $129,000. An anonymous tip from an employee on the agency’s whistleblower hotline led to this investigation and fine.

Aug. 6 ― A Texas construction firm faces a fine of $191,000 for trench collapse hazards. The El Paso construction company exposed its employees to potentially lethal danger by letting them work in an unprotected trench. Safety laws require that employers provide workers a safe way to enter and exit a trench, protection from cave-ins, and training. The company did none of these. Worse yet, the company had been put on the “severe violator” enforcement program in 2017 after it received four safety citations for these risks.

Aug. 6 ― A contractor at a Tennessee nuclear power plant faces a $71,599 fine for exposing workers to electric shock dangers. Day & Zimmermann NPS Inc. received serious citations after two workers suffered burns from an “arc flash,” a type of electrical explosion. OSHA says that this is a common and also highly preventable hazard.

I leave with some catchy safety quotes used by employers in the early 1900s.

“Don't kid about Safety; you may be the goat.” Gary Works Circle by Illinois Steel Company, 1916

“Accidents are someone’s fault. Don’t let them be yours.” Gary Works Circle by Illinois Steel Company, 1916

“Put your soul into your work, not your hand or foot.” State Safety News, September 1916, published by the University of Arizona Bureau of Mines

“Do not think because an accident hasn’t happened to you that it can’t happen.” Safety saying, circa early 1900s

“Safety brings first aid to the uninjured.” F.S. Hughes, 1912

“You don’t need to know the whole alphabet of Safety. The a, b, c of it will save you if you follow it: Always Be Careful.” Colorado School of Mines Magazine, Golden, Colorado, August 1918