Red Hook: Keg Accident Findings

an accident is preventable. an act of God is not. all accidents are preventable, it is the degree of care we undertake that prevents accidents. another word for accident? mistake.

this was an accident, and i do not think it required too much fore thought to anticipate. the employer made a mistake. if any organization takes a course of inaction or laziness because they think "some jobs are just dangerous", be certain a safety professional will lose his cool. work does not have to be dangerous and certainly not deadly.

OSHA has no business awarding damages. a jury can do that. OSHA assesses the cause and applies the appropriate fine (which is minimal given the result, and typically bargained down).

 

Agreed, OSHA will often let the company being fined keep some or all of the fines with the stipulation that the funds are used for safety upgrades or training.

I think that there are some cases where OSHA overreaches, but for the most part as long as you are operating in good faith and are not a serial offender, they will work with you to make your workplace and employees safer.

 

OSHA is a fucking joke, from my personal experience. Laughable is the first thing that comes to mind. It's just a revenue generator to follow up with companies. With that said- most of the time, they don't do anything. A walk through, a report, and all of this comes only if there is a major accident, complaint, etc. It's a starting point, but like someone pointed out, you can bargain it down, work your way out of it, and as long as something wild hasn't happened, fix the issue and brush it away.

Much like the EPD of your local state that shuffles people and paper work around to keep someone in a job, and collect fees for "permits" through the course of the year. It's a crock, and they offer mere suggestions. I work for a place that deals with this stuff all the time, so I'm not some arm chair QB. I deal with stuff that if released improperly or spilled, would be a bad day for not just the company, but the community.

Bottom line was, OSHA or not, this accident could have been prevented, but like all accidents, it'll happen and you can't always catch them all. The good that comes from this, is everyone in the industry will be more aware of the new plastic kegs, and/or will change, or remove them from their process. Much like it takes a bunch of accidents at a 4 way, to have them put in a light, we all go through things each day without really thinking about it. This company, and employee didn't think anything of the way they used the kegs.

 

I don't know how old you are but it's not business decisions made these days. This kind of cost analysis has been going on for decades. Check Ford's Pinto, Chevy's Corvair, or most product liability cases. The product is not improved until the insurance costs outstrip the costs of changing the product or the outcry is so great that the government passes laws over the objection of corporate lobbyists who always say it's going to cost jobs. It's called capitalism/free enterprise [but it only seems free for multinational corporations].