Tina Hall and her husband, L.V., in 2005. Hall was fatally burned in a workplace accident two years later. Photo courtesy of L.V. Hall
Around midnight on June 1, 2007, Tina Hall was finishing her shift in a place she loathed: the mixing room at the Toyo Automotive Parts factory in Franklin, Kentucky, where flammable chemicals were kept in open containers.A spark ignited vapors given off by toluene, a solvent Hall was transferring from a 55-gallon drum to a hard plastic bin. A flash fire engulfed the 39-year-old team leader, causing third-degree burns over 90 percent of her body. She died 11 days later.After investigating the accident, the Kentucky Labor Cabinet's Department of Workplace Standards cited Toyo for 16 "serious" violations and proposed a $105,500 fine in November 2007"You're disappointed because you think, That's all they got fined?" Hall's sister, Amy Harville, of Moulton, Alabama, said in a telephone interview. "But then I thought, at least they got 16 violations. I was thinking they'd stick, as severely as she was burned."The violations didn't stick. Every one of them went away in 2008, as did the fine, after Toyo's lawyer vowed to contest the enforcement action in court. Last month, in a move believed to be unprecedented in Kentucky, the Department of Workplace Standards reinstated all the violations because, it said, the company hadn't made promised safety improvements.The case was another black eye for state-run workplace health and safety programs nationwide. In all, 26 states administer their own programs under federal supervision. Several have been criticized in recent years for capitulating to lawyered-up employers, performing subpar inspections, and shutting out accident victims' families.
this is the reason that the right wing wants to "send back to states" laws so they can self govern. we've seen how well that works out for the population WI.? FIRST STEPS TO PRIVATIZING. they are destroying this country in the best way from inside out to "we the people".
Officials in Kentucky didn't tell Harville and Hall's husband that the Toyo violations had been dismissed. They found out in 2010 only because Ron Hayes, a fellow Alabamian who runs a nonprofit advocacy group for families of fallen workers, had taken an interest in the case and checked in regularly with the Department of Workplace Standards.
"Deleting citations in their entirety sends a signal to employers that they need only contest to alleviate the burden of history," OSHA's regional administrator in Atlanta, Cindy Coe, wrote to Hayes.
In a written statement, Kentucky's Department of Workplace Standards said it dismissed the violations after determining that "the case would not have withstood legal challenge."are they second guessing the law or are they the law pre judged right wing style?
are you recognizing this to be a result of "DEREGULATION" courtesy of your right wing party? next case you or yours recognize
