A Toledo grain processing facility faces two "serious" federal safety violations and fines totaling almost $29,000 after a worker there was killed in April after becoming entangled in a conveyor system, U.S. Department of Labor records show.
Jasper, Mich. resident Shaun Baker, 42, died April 14 while loading grain into a railcar through an elevated conveyor at the Hansen-Mueller facility at 1800 Water St. He was a father of five.
Hansen-Mueller has until late next week to contest the citations and related fines, which were issued June 7 by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA spokesman Scott Allen said as of Tuesday the company had not responded to the violations. Officials with the Omaha-based company did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
One citation said the conveyor safety system meant to stop a worker from falling did not have adequate protection to prevent its parts from getting damaged. Without such protection, the safety system's lines could potentially snag on parts of the conveyor itself, or fail entirely, which could expose a worker to a fall of 15 feet or more to the stone surface below. OSHA issued a proposed penalty of $14,357.
An OSHA summary of the accident itself was not included with the citations, but a police report said Mr. Baker's safety equipment had become entangled in the conveyor system. An autopsy said he had become "entrapped in motor of grain loader." Authorities found his body suspended at the end of the conveyor, several feet above a railcar.
The second OSHA citation issued after the accident said that cords powering the facility's rail loading station were set up in such a way that employees would be potentially "exposed to electrical shock/electrocution." OSHA also proposed a fine of $14,357 for that violation.
Additional OSHA documents about the accident were not publicly available as the case remains open, Mr. Allen said. In such cases, companies can request an informal conference with federal officials and seek lower fines and other adjustments.
OSHA inspected the Toledo grain processing facility less than a year before the accident, in July, 2021, as The Blade previously reported. After that visit, the agency issued two citations, including one "serious" one for failing to protect employees from falling into a shallow hole leading to an underground conveyor. OSHA reduced the company's fines in the case from nearly $5,850 to $3,800.
The 2021 inspection did not appear to reveal any concerns about the conveyor system where Mr. Baker died — including any of the problems mentioned in OSHA's latest violation letter to Hansen-Mueller.
First Published June 22, 2022, 7:55 p.m.
