Jeffboat: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Aug 19, 2011 (fatal): Employee is crushed between a barge and a jeffboat transfer

At 6:45 a.m. on August 19, 2011, with sunrise occuring in 16 minutes, an electrician working on the third shift was asked to perform a normal activity related to moving the assembly line. An electrician was requested to work on #008 Transfer Car on line #1 position #3. The electrician plugged in a rebuilt Ductowire Series L pendant. The pendant was rebuilt by the electrician's employer. The electrician moved the Transfer Car which had been accidentally placed on the track backwards with respect to all the other Transfer Cars. The rebuilt pendant was corroded and would intermittently cause the Transfer Car to move when turned on without any control buttons being pressed and would not stop moving even when the stop button was pushed. The Electrician was standing on the rails between a barge and Transfer Car #008. The Electrician's legs were crushed between the barge and the Transfer Car. The Transfer Car continued to move until the Electrician got another employee to turn off the power at the generator. Even though no buttons were pushed on the Ductowire pendant controller, the Transfer Car started on its own and moved in reverse. This pushed the Electrician further between the Transfer Car and barge. This compressed his chest so that he was unable to breathe. The electrician was killed from compression asphyxia.

Incident on May 14, 2010 (fatal): Employee falls from a fixed ladder on barge

At approximately 12:58 p.m. on May 13, 2010, Employee #1, a painter, was on a ba rge, cleaning debris from the interior floor using a broom, bucket and dustpan. Employee #1 stopped working and climbed up a fixed metal ladder to exit the spac e to the top of the barge. Employee #1 was carrying a broom in one hand while ma king the climb. Employee #1 was approximately eleven feet high, when he attempte d to hand the broom off to a coworker above, lost his grip and fell to the barge bottom below striking his head against a pipe support.

Incident on May 10, 2010 (fatal): Employee falls from barge

At approximately 7:00 a.m. on May 10, 2010, Employee #1 was observed walking up mobile steps on his way to his work area. Employee #1 was carrying a LN-25 Linco ln Welder. A coworker observed Employee #1 turn right of the steps onto the port side of the gunwale. Employee #1 placed his welder on top of a large barrel fan . As there is insufficient room to walk down the gunwale, Employee #1 was requir ed to edge around the fan. Employee #1 would then be required to traverse multip le potential fall hazards in the form of a hatch lid with a lip, multiple weld l ines running across the gunwale from the ground below, and the toeboard ends tha t were curled out into the walkway. Prior to Employee #1 reaching the kevel, the coworker next observed him with his upper body hanging out over the ground betw een the midrail and the top rail with one hand on the toprail and the other hand holding onto the lead cable. Employee #1 fell 20 ft to the ground below. the co worker responded to the scene and found the lead line wrapped around the arm and leg of Employee #1. Employee #1 had broken ribs, broken pelivc bones, damaged l iver, and rupture of left auricle of heart. Employee #1 was pronounced dead at t he scene, due to multiple injuries from a fall.