MARLBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) – A granite company has been fined $55,300 by federal workplace safety regulators in connection with the death of worker who was crushed last year by a granite slab.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited ASI/Massachusetts Stone Fabrication & Supply for 15 alleged serious violations of workplace safety standards.

Valdecir Rodrigues, 38, was killed Oct. 3, 2005, while he and a co-worker were trying to move a 6-by-10-foot granite slab that was stored between other slabs. The slabs fell on both workers, killing Rodrigues.

and injuring the other man.

An OSHA inspection found the company did not properly store the stabs and didn’t properly train workers how to move them.

“Proper training and storage are critical to protect workers because of the size and weight of these granite slabs,” said Francis Pagliuca, OSHA’s area director for Middlesex and Essex counties. “The lack of these and other safeguards at this workplace leave its workers exposed to death and serious injury from crushing, fire, electrical and other hazards.”

Inspectors found other crushing hazards, including a missing safety latch on a load hook and defective wire rope slings. The company has 15 working days from the receipt of its citations to comply or contest the violations.

A call to the company office Wednesday was not answered.

AP-ES-04-05-06 1652EDT

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