Region 2 News Release: 12-1395-NEW (osha 12-090)
July 17, 2012
Contact: Leni Fortson Joanna Hawkins
Phone: 215-861-5102 215-861-5101
Email: uddyback-fortson.lenore@dol.gov hawkins.joanna@dol.gov

US Labor Department's OSHA cites Newark, NJ, concrete
recycling company for safety hazards after worker fatality

NEWARK, N.J. – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited a demolition and concrete recycling company in Newark with 11 serious safety violations. The company uses two names: T. Fiore Demolition Inc. and T. Fiore Recycling Corp. OSHA initiated an investigation following the death of a worker who was crushed in a conveyor belt. The company failed to install machine guarding prior to allowing the worker to operate alongside the conveyor system.

The serious violations involve inadequate guardrails; inadequate grab bars on fixed ladders; a lack of safe access to scaffolds; unsafe debris accumulation on scaffold platforms, which creates trip and fall hazards; a lack of "lockout/tagout" training and procedures for machines' energy sources as well as not providing lockout/tagout devices to workers who service dangerous equipment; unguarded moving machine parts, belts and pulleys; and the improper storage of compressed gasses. A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer know or should have known.

"This tragedy could have been prevented if the company had followed OSHA's guidelines and installed machine guarding on its conveyor system," said Kris Hoffman, director of OSHA's Parsippany Area Office. "Employers are responsible for ensuring safe and healthful workplaces, and will be held legally accountable when they fail to do so."

T. Fiore employs 33 workers at the facility. Proposed penalties total $47,600.

The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations to comply, request an informal conference with the OSHA area director, or contest the citations and proposed penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or report workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA's toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency's Parsippany office at 973-263-1003.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA's role is to ensure these conditions for America's working men and women by setting enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.

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U.S. Department of Labor news materials are accessible at http://www.dol.gov. The information above is available in large print, Braille or CD from the COAST office upon request by calling 202-693-7828 or TTY 202-693-7755.