Region 5 News Release: 13-1263-CHI
July 3, 2013
Contact: Scott Allen Rhonda Burke
Phone: 312-353-6976
Email: allen.scott@dol.gov burke.rhonda@dol.gov

OSHA fines Midland Davis Corp. $64,680 for repeat safety
violations at Moline, Ill., scrap metal recycling center

MOLINE, Ill. – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Midland Davis Corp. for 19 safety violations, carrying proposed fines of $64,680. The citation follows an April inspection at the Moline scrap metal recycling center. OSHA initiated the inspection under the Site-Specific Targeting Program which targets employers who record a higher than average injury and illness rate.

"Failing to conduct periodic inspections and remove damaged equipment creates an atmosphere in which workers are vulnerable to injury on the job," said Tom Bielema, OSHA's area director in Peoria. "By failing to correct previous deficiencies, Midland Davis has demonstrated a lack of commitment to employee safety and health."

Midland Davis was cited for two repeat safety violations for failing to conduct periodic inspections of energy control procedures and failing to train and evaluate each power industrial vehicle operator. A repeat violation exists when an employer previously has been cited for the same or a similar violation of a standard, regulation, rule or order at any other facility in federal enforcement states within the last five years. The same violation was cited in April 2012 at the company's Pekin, Ill., facility.

A total of 13 serious safety violations includes lack of fall protection for employees working on elevated platforms, lack of machine guarding, and failure to remove damaged vehicles and other equipment from service. A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.

Additionally, four other-than-serious violations involve failing to certify in writing the completion of a hazard assessment, provide safety information to employees voluntarily using filtering face pieces, maintain inspection records for ropes on the locomotive crane and to ensure powered industrial vehicles were properly marked. An other-than-serious violation is one that has a direct relationship to job safety and health, but probably would not cause death or serious physical harm.

The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations and notice of proposed penalties to contest them before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. If the company does not file or contest within that period, it must abate the cited conditions within the period ordered in the citations and pay the proposed penalties.

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 Peoria Office at 309-589-7033.

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 exist for America's working men and women by setting and 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, audio tape or disc from the COAST office upon request by calling 202-693-7828 or TTY 202-693-7755.