LISBON – A federal safety board has issued a pair of citations against the Dingley Press after an investigation into a workplace accident that killed a Dixfield woman last month.
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration announced Monday that Dingley failed to provide proper machine guiding and adequate training for employees.
Both violations were classified as serious by the federal administration. The citations come with proposed penalties of $6,300 each.
Officials from Dingley have scheduled a meeting with OSHA on Wednesday. Company President Chris Pierce said he could not discuss the citations until after that meeting.
For more than a month, federal inspectors have been investigating the Lisbon Street business after 21-year-old Kayla Cox died while working on a print machine there.
Cox was killed the night of Sept. 2 while helping change a roll on a printing press. She became caught between a roll of paper and the framework of the roll stand as the new roll of paper was being spun into position, according to OSHA documents.
An autopsy later revealed that Cox died from blunt force trauma to the head. Dingley officials said the same machine had injured another worker in the past.
According to OSHA, there are no written operating procedures for any of the tasks related to operating the press. Employees are expected to become familiar with the machine through on-the-job training performed by the person with the next level of experience on the press, according to OSHA documents.
“As most people have their own way of doing things and the fact that the presses are not identical, with each having slightly different safety and operating features, this presents a problem insuring adequate training for the press operating personnel,” according to the documents.
The second citation charges that the press machine was not equipped with adequate guarding to protect operators and other employees from hazards such as rotating parts, flying chips and sparks.
The OSHA investigation found that three of six press machines lacked proper guarding mechanisms around roll stands.
Shortly after Cox was killed, Pierce said that the company had bought the press, an 8-year-old Mitsubishi GPX 2500, a year earlier. Pierce said it had been his understanding that the machine was equipped with all of the standard safety features.
Dingley has until Oct. 26 to address the issues of safety equipment and until Nov. 15 to implement better training, according to Ted Fitzgerald, assistant regional director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s office of public affairs.
“Among other methods, one feasible and acceptable method to correct the hazard is to develop standard operating procedures and train employees based on those procedures,” the OSHA document states.
A man who once worked with Cox at Dingley described her as a hard worker who strived to fit in with the all-male crew on the night shift.
“She really had to work hard to get respect and she got it,” said Scott Giasson of Auburn. “Everybody liked her.”
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