The Department of Labor and Industries recently completed its study and discovered that Cardinal CG Tumwater had two serious safety violations following the death of an employee in the Thurston County facility four months ago.
The purpose of our investigation was to look at the requirements, said L&I spokesperson Elaine Fischer. It doesnt reflect on the tragedy that occurred there and concluding that that is what caused (the accident), and thats not what we found.
Both serious violations were related to stairs that lead up to the air table in the facility not meeting requirements. Each violation came with a fine of $1,750, bring the total assessed fine to $3,500.
A serious violation is the second level of a three-tiered violation system. Being deemed serious meant that the study found that the violation could have had a role in causing the accident.
The first violation was due to the stairs that lead to the air table not meeting proper width requirements. The second violation was due to the stairs not meeting proper angle requirements.
The Tumwater plant has until Dec. 7 to correct the violations, and until Dec. 17 to appeal the decision that was handed down.
Fischer said that the plant had already resolved the problem.
Nathan Owen, manager of the Tumwater plant, declined to comment when reached by telephone on Wednesday.
The investigation followed the death of an employee after he tripped and fell into a pane of glass, severing main arteries in the left side of his neck on Aug. 18.
The incident became the third accident to happen one of Cardinal CG regional plants this year, each followed by finding of serious violations.
In March, a female employee at the companys Winlock plant had her hand cut off by a piece of equipment.
Fischer said that the company was cited for one serious violation following the investigation for not ensuring that an employee had taken an adequate training program for use of a chop saw.
The other incident occurred at the Chehalis plant in July after an employee suffered a hand injury on a glass drilling machine. The investigation found six serious violations, with original penalties of $6,650.
However, the company appealed the decision and the penalties were reduced to $4,900.
Though there were several injuries among the three plants, Fischer said that the company has a good safety program and it makes a good faith effort to comply with safety standards.
Manufacturing is one of the more hazardous industries because of all the machines, Fischer said. There are inherent dangers.
There have been eight safety or health inspections at the three Cardinal plants in 2007 and 2008. At four of those inspections no violations were found.
Marqise Allen: (360) 807-8237
