The inspection began on Oct 9, 2019 as a planned inspection, in Fort Smith.
That inspection ended with 4 citation items: 3 serious and 1 other-than-serious.
Penalties were first proposed at $17,238 and now stand at $10,343, 40% lower after settlements or reviews.
Machine guarding comes up most often in these citations: 2 items under 1910.212.
How that compares: the median penalty per cited inspection for manufacturing employers since 2015 is $3,600, and Kopco, Inc averages $10,343 (1 cited inspection).
Kopco, Inc also files yearly injury logs with OSHA, summarized below.
It reported 2 severe injuries to OSHA since 2015.
Citation items per year, by inspection date.
Arkansas · latest 90 days of OSHA records
14employers cited
Get notified the morning OSHA posts each new citation in Arkansas: the employer, the site address, the rules broken and the penalty.
From the Form 300A summaries employers file with OSHA each year. Rate = recordable cases per 100 full-time workers.
In 2023, the Fort Smith site logged 6 recordable injuries or illnesses among about 120 workers: 4.8 per 100 full-time workers, against a median of 2.7 for its industry. Those cases cost 9 days away from work.
Site and year
Workers
Cases
Days-away cases
Rate
Industry median
Kopco, Inc
Fort Smith · 2023
120
6
1
4.8
2.7
Kopco, Inc.
Fort Smith · 2022
100
6
0
5.7
2.7
Severe injury reports
Employers must report any work-related amputation, in-patient hospitalization or loss of an eye to OSHA within 24 hours. 2 reports on file.
An employee was stacking metal tubes using a forklift. A stack became unstable and the employee got out of the forklift to steady it, instructing his helper to get into the forklift. The forklift movement caused some tubes to fall and strike the employee, resulting in an open fracture of his left hand.
Apr 7, 2023, Fort Smith: Hospitalization · fractures · forearm(s)
An employee was unloading a shaft from a routing machine when the shaft disconnected from the magnet apparatus and struck the employee's right forearm and fractured it.
The rules behind these citations
Current text from the Code of Federal Regulations. Some citations were issued under older wording.
(a) Machine guarding—(1) Types of guarding. One or more methods of machine guarding shall be provided to protect the operator and other employees in the machine area from hazards such as those created by point of operation, ingoing nip points, rotating parts, flying chips and sparks. Examples of guarding methods are—barrier guards, two-hand tripping devices, electronic safety devices, etc.
29 CFR 1910.212(a)(3)(ii)
(ii) The point of operation of machines whose operation exposes an employee to injury, shall be guarded. The guarding device shall be in conformity with any appropriate standards therefor, or, in the absence of applicable specific standards, shall be so designed and constructed as to prevent the operator from having any part of his body in the danger zone during the operating cycle.
Alert subscribers get notified of each newly cited employer in Arkansas the morning it is posted. See the alert plans.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA enforcement data. A citation is OSHA's allegation; employers can contest it, and the status column shows where each item stands. Something wrong on this page? Tell us.
