Region 6 News Release: 12-2235-DAL
Nov. 15, 2012
Contact: Elizabeth Todd Juan Rodriguez
Phone: 972-850-4710 972-850-4709
Email: todd.elizabeth@dol.gov rodriguez.juan@dol.gov

US Department of Labor's OSHA cites Williams & Davis Boilers in Hutchins,
Texas, with repeat, willful and serious violations during follow-up inspection

HUTCHINS, Texas – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Williams & Davis Boilers Inc. with nine safety violations - including one willful, four repeat and four serious - for continuing to expose workers to fall and other hazards at the company's facility in Hutchins. Proposed penalties total $131,670.

A May inspection was conducted as a follow-up to another in July 2011.

The willful violation involves operating a 10-ton overhead crane without bridge brakes and failing to ensure that the crane had sufficient clearance to prevent the bridge from striking the building. A willful violation is one committed with intentional knowing or voluntary disregard for the law's requirements, or with plain indifference to worker safety and health.

The repeat violations include failing to protect workers from fall hazards while jacketing boilers 4-10 feet above the floor, ensure that workers are trained to safely operate powered industrial trucks, ensure that workroom floors are kept clean and dry, and keep pendent controls on overhead cranes clean so that the function labels are legible. 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. Similar violations were cited during the 2011 inspection.

The serious violations include failing to ensure that personal protective equipment is designed and constructed for the work performed, implement confined space entry procedures for workers who perform welding duties inside de-aerators and boilers, establish energy control procedures for machinery with more than one energy source and ensure that powered industrial trucks are taken out of service when in need of repair. 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.

"This employer is well aware of the hazards to workers and has had several opportunities to come into compliance with OSHA's safety standards. Instead, the employer has continued to allow the conditions to exist while putting workers at risk of injury or much worse," said Stephen Boyd, OSHA's area director in Dallas.

The citations can be viewed at http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/Williams_and_Davis_Boilers_432852_1114_12.pdf*.

The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA's Dallas area director or contest the findings 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 Dallas office at 214-320-2400.

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 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 or CD from the COAST office upon request by calling 202-693-7828 or TTY 202-693-7755.

* Accessibility Assistance Contact OSHA's Office of Communications at 202-693-1999 for assistance accessing PDF materials.