Greater Cincinnati has been a part of that concerning trend, according to OSHA data. Earlier this month, a construction worker who was trying to dismantle the Hopple Street Bridge was killed when the structure toppled down. Just days later, another man was injured when he fell nearly 20 feet while working at AK Steel.
The Journal-News reviewed the workplace safety history of the companies involved in those accidents and found each has had OSHA investigators inspect their work sites in recent years, and some have had serious violations.
Typically, OSHA will consider a company’s workplace safety record when investigators are inspecting the companies and considering handing down violations, said Bill Wilkerson, the agency’s area director for Cincinnati.
If a company has a history of violations, they could face more serious fines or sanctions.
“We look at the history of every employer prior to proposing of violations,” Wilkerson said. “It is an employer’s responsibility in every case to make sure these workers are safe.”
Here’s a look at the history of the companies involved in major accidents so far in 2015:
Kokosing Construction Inc.
Brandon Carl, 35, of Kentucky was working for Kokosing Construction Company Inc., the contractor that’s in charge of a $90.7 million overhaul of a stretch of Interstate 75 and the Hopple Street Bridge, when the bridge collapsed the night of Jan. 19 and killed him.
Another Kokosing worker suffered minor injuries from the collapse and a truck driver who was traveling on the highway was also injured.
Federal inspectors say an investigation in to the bridge collapse and Carl’s death will take between three and six months.
Investigators have inspected the Kokosing Group’s work in Ohio 42 times since 2005 and turned up seven safety violations total during those visits. That means only 16 percent of the time, federal inspectors have unearthed a problem with the company’s performance in the last decade.
Most recently, the company was given a violation in 2014 for mishandling its fall protection procedure. Three other citations were given out in 2013; one for a fall protection violation and two others related to flammable liquids.
Fall protection violations are the most frequent reason OSHA cites a company and 34 percent of work deaths were caused by a fall, according to U.S. Department of Labor. When companies are cited for fall protection violations, it’s typically because they fail to have equipment on hand or they didn’t provide their employee with proper training.
Still, Wilkerson said Kokosing has a good track record. He said most of the inspections OSHA conducted on the company have been planned, not the result of complaints or accidents.
“We don’t necessarily view them as a bad performer,” Wilkerson said. “The vast majority of the time we did not issue citations.”
Kokosing expects to wrap up its own investigation of the accident sometime in the next few weeks or months, said John Householder, the Assistant Vice President of Heavy Highway for Kokosing Construction.
“We are a company that continually looks to improve our safety processes every day,” Householder said.
MPW Industrial
MPW Industrial is the contractor who employed Jacob Lambert, 23, of Middletown when he fell the night of Jan. 22 while working at AK Steel’s Middletown Works Plant. Lambert sustained severe injuries and fractures and was transported to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, where he as since been discharged.
Since 2005, OSHA has launched 10 inspections of the company in Ohio, resulting in eight violations. Nationally, OSHA has inspected the company 22 times in the last decade, with 12 of those inspections being opened because of complaints or accidents, according to OSHA documents. The company has been cited 20 times.
“We have done inspections of MPW in the past, so they’re not strangers to us at all,” Wilkerson said.” In terms of their entire record, they’ve had some violations with us before. Almost one or two violations every time we inspected them.”
Most notably, the company received six serious violations and a $28,000 fine in 2010 after three workers were severely burned at a Kentucky plant.
The company’s latest violations in Ohio stemmed from two inspections in 2012, which resulted in two serious workplace safety citations in 2012 and another “other” violation that year. Another complaint investigation, which OSHA opened in November, is still ongoing.
OSHA has up to six months to complete the investigation into Lambert’s workplace accident.
MPW declined comment for this story.
AK Steel
Lambert was working at AK Steel plant Middletown Works when he fell nearly 20 feet into a pit full of concrete and railroad tracks. It’s less likely AK Steel will be cited in the accident, since the company didn’t employ Lambert but OSHA will still investigate the corporation.
OSHA investigators have inspected AK Steel’s Ohio work sites 34 times in the last decade, which resulted in 45 violations.
The reason for those violations vary. Most recently, the company was cited and fined $5,700 for a serious violation of “general requirements” following the death of employee Gregory Barnes. Barnes suffered burns while working at the plant on April 7 and later died from his injuries.
OSHA records show the agency has not inspected AK Steel in Ohio since late 2013.
AK Steel has seen a decline in violations and inspections since 2011, which was the company’s worst work place safety year on record from 2005 to 2015. In 2011, AK Steel racked up 13 violations in Ohio and in 2010 it was cited 11 times. Nine of those violations were considered “serious” or “repeat.”
A spokesman for AK Steel declined to discuss specific details from this month’s accident. He did point out, however, that the company’s safety performance was “six-times better than the industry average” in 2013.
“That said, even one accident or injury is one too many and AK Steel constantly strives to have zero injuries in each of our plants,” Barry Racey, a spokesman for the company, said in a statement. “Our goal every day is to have each and every employee return home safely from work.”
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