Grove City, Oh – Fabcon Precast LLC, a company based in Delaware with operations in Grove City, Ohio, announced on Wednesday, February 26, guilty before the Federal Court, due to the death of a 20-year worker in 2020.
After a faulty pneumatic door, the company was admitted to having violated a security standard for the security and health authority (OSHA) against a security standard for occupational safety (OSHA).
Ledbetter, who has been working as a batch operator in the Fabcon facility since January 2020, was killed on June 6, 2020 when he tried to repair a Concrete mixer door. The mixer, who unloaded concrete through a pneumatic door, had a safety valve to release the pressure and not to make the door operational during maintenance. However, the handle to this valve was broken months earlier and was never replaced so that the door was dangerous.
On the day of the incident, Ledbetter tried to clear the jammed door manually when she suddenly closed on his head. He was taken to a hospital, but died of his injuries five days later.
Due to guilty violation of the Osha regulations, which led to death – an offense of Federal Class B – Fabcon became one of the few companies that were ever charged with criminal law. The offense is the only criminal charge that is available for such security violations in the workplace according to the federal law that lead to a death.
“This case is a tragic memory of the importance of maintaining the security standards at the workplace,” said Adam Gustafson, deputy deputy deputy attorney in general at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources of the Ministry of Justice. “If companies do not do this and leads this failure to the death of an employee, they will be held accountable.”
The Inspector General of the Ministry of Labor carried out the investigation. The case was persecuted by the Department of Environmental Crimes and the special lawyer of the US US lawyer at Ohio's southern district.