A Mississippi steel pipe manufacturer has reached a settlement agreement with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to resolve citations and penalties involving one worker’s death and another’s amputation injuries, the agency announced November 22.
On January 19, two employees of Jindal Tubular USA LLC in Bay Saint Louis were setting up a site to create a stack of steel pipes—30 inches in diameter by 40 feet long, weighing over 2,000 pounds each. The employees removed a chock block on an existing stack of pipes, causing the stack to collapse on top of them both. One employee was killed, and the other sustained multiple leg fractures and was hospitalized for treatment.
The incident resulted in life-altering injuries to the 20-year-old laborer, who subsequently lost both legs.
Agency investigators determined that Jindal Tubular USA hadn’t established safe practices for storing and stacking pipes.
OSHA cited the company for failing to ensure stacked pipes were stable and secure against collapse. During their investigation, inspectors also identified three repeat violations:
- Failing to provide machine guarding,
- Failing to periodically inspect or test electrical insulating protective gloves, and
- Failing to prevent slipping hazards.
The company was cited for 26 serious violations that included failing to ensure guardrails or covers were in place at open pits to protect employees from fall hazards, allowing the accumulation of combustible dust on surfaces, and failing to label exit doors to facilitate safe egress in the event of a fire.
In an agreement negotiated by OSHA and the Labor Department’s Office of the Solicitor, Jindal Tubular USA agreed to withdraw its challenge to the citations and pay $442,815 in penalties.
Under the agreement, the employer is obligated to do the following:
- Hire a professional third-party consultant to develop a comprehensive safety and health program the employer will implement within 30 days.
- Allow the consultant to conduct monthly worksite audits and provide copies of the audits to OSHA.
- Provide safety training to all stacking yard employees.
- Upgrade electrical wiring and components in combustible dust areas.
- Employ at least one dedicated safety and health professional who has completed a 30-hour OSHA safety course on each shift.
- Report work-related injuries and illnesses to OSHA every quarter for a period of 3 years, and allow agency personnel to inspect the facility without delay when a logged injury or illness occurs.
Including the latest violations, OSHA has cited Jindal Tubular USA with 46 safety violations in the last 5 years. The company, incorporated in 2014, has more than 400 employees and manufactures and coats large-diameter steel pipes at its 155-acre facility in Bay Saint Louis, according to OSHA.
“Jindal Tubular’s repeated failure to provide employees with a safe workplace has been truly disturbing,” Courtney Bohannon, OSHA’s Jackson, Mississippi, area office director, said in an agency statement. “We hope this settlement signals a new willingness to make employee safety the centerpiece of its operations.”
OSHA recently created a new Birmingham, Alabama, regional office responsible for employer assistance, inspection, and enforcement in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and the Florida Panhandle. The agency restructured its regional offices to strengthen its presence in the Southeastern United States in response to businesses that have grown or relocated within the region.