By Traci Chapman
Published on March 6, 2008

Canadian County District 2 was cited with nine health and safety violations by officials of the Public Employees Occupational Safety and Health Program resulting from an investigation following the January death of foreman Larry Orr.

Violations included lack of training for forklift operators and “powered industrial truck operators,” as well as regular evaluations of those operators. District 2 was also cited for not obtaining certifications for forklift operators.

Orr, 42, was killed Jan. 9 when a 60-foot piece of steel pipe he was loading on a trailer with another worker struck him in the leg, knocking him off balance and to the ground. The pipe then rolled off the trailer onto his upper body. At the time of the accident, the employee working with Orr was loading the pipe onto the trailer with a forklift.

Jerry Smith, county emergency manager, said the forklift operator was not certified at the time of the accident. Orr himself had been certified in the past but his certification was out of date, Smith said.

“That in itself — the lack of certification — doesn’t really have that much bearing on it,” he said. “He (the operator) has operated forklifts all his life.”

Smith said he was disappointed in the report, not for what it contained but for what it did not.

“I really expected, hoped for, something that would help me in the future, something that I could build off of to help avoid this type of accident down the road,” he said.

District 2 Commissioner Don Young said the problem wasn’t in training or certification — Orr had been trained earlier and had extensive experience in the yard.

“He was just where he shouldn’t have been, and he knew better than to be there,” he said. “It was just a dumb stunt that never should have happened.”

Smith and Young said complacency was key in the accident, with employees trying to get the job done quickly and “letting their guard down” just long enough for an injury to occur.

“I’ve done a lot of stupid things in my time, and I should have been killed but somehow was lucky to have made it through,” Young said. “Unfortunately, this was a time when he (Orr) wasn’t lucky like that.”

According to a memo compiled by investigators, being “in a hurry” to get the job done was a factor in how Orr and the operator were loading the pipe. In his statement to investigators, the operator said he normally would have used a track hoe with an opposing arm — which was in the yard at the time of the accident — to lift the pipe onto the trailer, but “they were in a hurry to get things loaded up for the next day so it was decided to go ahead and use the forklift.”

PEOSH, a division of the Oklahoma Department of Labor, has authority in this case because Orr worked for Canadian County, rather than a private employer. Mustang News obtained the report and investigation file compiled by PEOSH through a Freedom of Information Act request.

No one person or factor was listed in the report as being responsible for the accident. PEOSH did list violations in performing safety examinations of the forklift involved in the accident, as well as a missing nameplate and lack of required inspections of fire extinguishers in addition to the training and certification violations.

The county was also cited for not properly notifying PEOSH of the accident within 48 hours, as required by the agency. While Smith notified the agency by phone, the correct form was not submitted in time, resulting in a violation. PEOSH supervisor Thomas Reyenga said the violation was corrected by county officials; Smith said the fault was with PEOSH investigators, who did not advise him there was a deadline in which to submit the form.

In addition to the nine violations related directly to Orr’s death, PEOSH inspectors cited District 2 with 32 breaches found during an inspection conducted at the yard Jan. 16. Reyenga said such an inspection is routine after a fatality accident.

Violations found as a result of the Jan. 16 inspection included:
-14 violations relating to fire extinguisher placement, inspection and documentation. According to the report, two fire extinguishers were blocked by equipment.
-13 violations due to missing, faded or improper labeling of electrical facilities or hazardous materials.
-Three violations concerning the yard eyewash station, including missing caps, failure to inspect the station and blocking the station with cleaning equipment.
-Two violations due to adjustments on power equipment. According to the report, these could result in “cuts to fingers and penetration injuries from contact with or disintegration of the grinding wheel.”
-Lack of a no-smoking sign at a hydraulic oil station.
-Failure to maintain a log of work-related illnesses and injuries for 2006 and 2007.

The county has until March 14 to provide documentation that it has corrected all of the deficiencies found by PEOSH. Smith said his office is working with Young to rectify all 41 violations listed in the Department of Labor reports.

“I’ve got 95 percent of them taken care of or in the process of taking care of it,” he said. “All of the employees have been through training and certified.”

While Smith and Young said all of PEOSH’s concerns are being addressed, at least one person — an unidentified District 2 employee — voiced doubts about safety at the yard.

According to the PEOSH file, investigators received an anonymous call from an individual identifying himself as a District 2 employee on Jan. 17, the day after its second visit to the yard. During that call, the unnamed employee gave investigators a laundry list of alleged safety violations, stating that “safety was not a top priority” at District 2.

The caller alleged District 2 employees are not required to perform written pre-trip inspections on district vehicles, and the vehicles do not have first aid kits, flares or triangles. The employee also said “they are required to drive the CMVs (commercial motor vehicles) no matter what physical condition they are in (bald tires, bad/out of adjustment brakes, lights inoperable etc.).”

Several of the employee’s allegations concerned unsafe conditions on District 2 vehicles. Oklahoma Highway Patrol Division S is responsible for enforcing safety regulations on commercial vehicles, including those owned by the county. OHP representatives said until a formal written complaint, which includes the name and contact information of the complainant, is received, there is nothing the agency can do about it. Young denied there is a problem with his vehicles.

The unidentified employee told investigators he was directed to operate heavy machinery, such as a backhoe, although he had no training on it.

Training was involved in other allegations brought by the employee, including a lack of schooling in fire extinguisher use and monthly training consisting of “watching a tape/film and signing the master sheet.”

Reyenga said PEOSH could not do anything to address the concerns voiced by the employee because no one at the District 2 yard would go “on the record.”

Young said the employee’s allegations were “false” and suggested it was a political rival, rather than one of his employees, who contacted PEOSH.

“This sounds a lot like someone’s campaign literature to me,” he said.