Worker deaths result in OSHA citations

From Staff Reports

A local company and a subcontractor have been cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration following separate work-related accidents that killed two people.

OSHA, a division of the U.S. Department of Labor, cited the Aladdin Division of Mohawk Industries for two serious violations and three other violations, and proposed fining the company a total of $8,550. Bradley Brookshire, 45, of Rocky Face, was pulled into a coating machine and trapped under a roller at Aladdin Mills at 2001 Antioch Road on Nov. 10, 2008, according to a Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office report.

In a separate incident, OSHA cited subcontractor Jerry Shelton for two serious violations, but no fine was proposed. Glenn Stone, 44 of Chatsworth, was helping steady a metal utility pole that was being put up to serve as a flagpole at Dalton Plaza South, a shopping area near the Carbondale exit off I-75, when he was apparently electrocuted.

In the Aladdin incident, OSHA found “employees were exposed to being caught in the rollers of the coater machine when they reached through unprotected areas/ends to pull wrinkles out of carpeting.” The proposed fine is $6,300. OSHA noted the violation was corrected during an inspection.

OSHA found in the tufting area that “the reverse side of the point of operation of the tufting machines was not guarded. Employees are exposed to anywhere from 763 to 1,800 industrial sewing needles that attach yarn to the primary backing during the tufting process.” The proposed fine is $2,250. Mohawk has until May 21 for that violation to be corrected, OSHA said.

Those were the serious violations. Other violations concerned six compressed gas cylinders that were not properly secured, openings in the fourth floor of the extrusion area that were not properly covered, and florescent tubes in light fixtures in the creel section that were not properly protected.

Robert Webb, a spokesman for Mohawk, did not immediately return a phone message Wednesday afternoon.

In the Dalton Plaza South incident, a man who was helping on the project said the pole was being put in place with the use of a tractor with a bucket on the front when the pole began to fall into a set of power lines.

OSHA found that “the employer did not furnish a place of employment which was free from recognized hazards that were likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that an employee was exposed to a fall hazard of approximately 6 to 8 feet as well as being exposed to caught-in-between hazards as a result of working from an elevated front-end loader bucket while attempting to raise and position an aluminum flagpole.” OSHA advised following the manufacturer’s guidelines and not allowing riders in or work to be done from a front-end loader bucket.

OSHA also found the employees were allowed to erect and position the flagpole near overhead power lines that had not been “de-energized and grounded” or “insulated or guarded by any other means.”

Shelton was helping to steady the pole. He was sent to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta with burns on his arms and legs. He returned home several weeks later, according to family members. A phone number for him could not be found.