An Iowa worker died at Eaton's shop in Belmond. Death in the workplace is never a good thing, but we need not condemned the employer; they simply need to heed this call to action. Here is the news story.

Eaton Corporation was fined because of the death of a worker at the Belmond Plant on February 17, 2010. Doug Barkema, age 51 died from injuries caused by a grinder. IOSH or OSHA settled with EATON on a $4,500 fine for failing to furnish a place of employment free from recognized hazards that were likely to cause death or serious injury and employees were exposed to flying debris.

The focus of the investigation centered on a torque wrench not being available for tightening bolts on the grinder wheel. I’m not sure of exactly how to explain this mechanical problem; the news article from Channel 3’s KIMT is good, but I’m finding it difficult this morning to fully understand Dave Hansen’s article. Follow this link to read Dave’s article.

So what can we take away from such a tragedy? What we need to keep in mind is that Eaton Corporation isn’t necessarily a bad place to work because of this accidental death. On this day they weren’t perfect; and my guess is privately the supervisors would agree with that statement. An accident in the shop isn’t any reason to outright condemn an employer. While we may grieve with for the widow, let’s not lose sight of where our focus needs to be; it needs to be on creating a safer work environment.

Safety never gets a day off; safety doesn’t call in sick, doesn't ignore worker complaints, safety doesn't fail to evaluate the workplace to make sure the right tools are available and everyone in the shop shouldn't take their eye off the ball. Supervising workers should be all about safety.

Employers and supervisors need to be diligent in getting the work done, but they also need to listen to worker complaints about having the right equipment and enough of it to do the job safely.  Safety needs to be the number one priority for the entire work team including the foremen and forewomen on the job.

Job safety needs to be the number one priority!