Tuesday, May 13, 2008

State orders top penalty, says risks known before accident that cut off arm

By CHRISTINA SALERNO
csalerno@modbee.com

last updated: August 01, 2007 11:13:46 PM

The Hershey Co. received two citations and was fined the maximum amount for an accident at its Oakdale plant that severed a woman's arm at the shoulder, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health announced Monday.

Hershey was fined $140,000 for violations stemming from the March 24 accident. Each citation carries a $70,000 fine, the stiffest penalty that can be levied against a company, OSHA spokeswoman Kate McGuire said.

The violations were classified as "serious and willful," meaning Hershey was aware of the risks but didn't take measures to prevent them, McGuire said.

"This is an accident that did not need to happen," she said.

Hershey has until Aug. 12 to pay the fines. Hershey plans to appeal.

Hershey spokesman Kirk Saville said the company takes employee safety seriously and has "strong safety programs" in all its facilities.

"We strongly disagree with the citations and plan to fully exercise our legal right to appeal this matter," he said, adding that he could not comment further while the issue is under appeal.

Hershey is shuttering the Oakdale plant as part of a restructuring plan that will send production to Mexico. The first round of layoffs began this month and will continue through January, when the plant will close.

According to the OSHA report, two sanitation employees at the Oakdale plant were assigned to clean steel belts and a "comomill," a batter-sifting machine.

After cleaning a steel belt, one of the employees, Erica Domen, moved to the second-story platform of the comomill machine and began cleaning the inside by hand.

The second employee finished with a different steel belt, then also moved to the platform and switched on the breaker box that powers the machine.

Domen's left arm was caught in the machine and amputated at the shoulder by a rotating paddle. She was taken to Doctors Medical Center in Modesto, then transferred to Davies Medical Center in San Francisco.

Domen couldn't be reached for comment Monday.

An investigation showed that the employees were not trained by Hershey to abide by "lock-out, tag-out" procedures, as required by law, McGuire said.

Whenever equipment is being cleaned or repaired, it has to be mechanically locked so it cannot operate, or it must be disconnected from its power source.

The investigation found that the switch that is supposed to block the machine from operating while its parts are sepa-rated was broken, according to the report.

The broken switch allowed the "rotating paddles to be activated while (Domen) was cleaning the unit," even though the parts were separated, the report says.

The OSHA report concludes that the contributing factors of the accident include:

Hershey not enforcing lock-out, tag-out procedures

Hershey allowing two employees on the platform at the same time

The broken switch

Hershey was cited for not using a "hazardous energy control" policy during equipment cleaning. It also was cited for not having accident prevention signs or tags on the power source of the equipment.

Bee staff writerChristina Salerno can be reached at csalerno@modbee.com or 238-4574.