The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry’s (DLI’s) Minnesota OSHA (MNOSHA) Compliance has issued a $621,600 penalty to a trucking company primarily for lack of confined-space safety requirements at its facility in Virginia, Minnesota, following a worker fatality in a tanker in March 2024.
In July 2024, MNOSHA Compliance issued 10 serious citations for violations of the general industry, confined space standard, 29 CFR 1910.146. The inspection found that when an employee died while working inside of a confined space, the company did not adequately protect employees from confined-space hazards.
For permit-required confined spaces, the company did not:
- prevent unauthorized entry;
- identify and evaluate the hazards prior to entry;
- implement the means, procedures and practices necessary for safe operations;
- test conditions inside prior to employee entry;
- provide at least one attendant outside during entry operations;
- develop and implement a system for the preparation, issuance, use and cancellation of entry permits for entries conducted by employees;
- provide adequate training for employees conducting entries;
- certify the required training for employees was completed prior to entry;
- evaluate the rescue capabilities of the local emergency services prior to employee entries; or
- ensure employees wore adequate retrieval systems or other methods to facilitate non-entry rescue of entrants.
In addition to the confined-space citations, MNOSHA Compliance issued citations for a lack of safety datasheets for chemicals contained within truck tank trailers, which were not readily accessible to employees in their work areas, and for not establishing and administering a joint labor-management safety committee.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports more than 1,030 U.S. workers died from workplace injuries related to confined spaces from 2011 to 2018.
Here is a breakdown of the citations:
Citation 01 Item 001
Type of Violation: Serious; $800
Minn. Stat. 182.676: The employer did not establish and administer a joint labor-management safety committee which holds regularly scheduled meetings and has employee members selected by the employees:
The employer did not establish a joint labor-management safety committee in the facility when subject to the requirements of section 183.653, subdivision 8.
Citation 01 Item 002
Type of Violation: Serious; $67,200
29 CFR 1910.146(d)(1): Under the permit-required confined space program required by 29 CFR 1910.146(c)(4) , the employer did not implement the measures necessary to prevent unauthorized entry:
The employer did not implement the measures necessary to prevent unauthorized entry into permit confined spaces in the facility , including the employee entry into the WT264 tank trailer that occurred on March 7th, 2024.
Citation 01 Item 003
Type of Violation: Serious; $67,200
29 CFR 1910.146(d)(2): Under the permit-required confined space program required by 29 CFR 1910.146(c)(4), the employer did not identify and evaluate the hazards of permit spaces before employees entered:
The employer did not adequately identify or evaluate the hazards of permit-required confined spaces for employees prior to entry, including the hazards of the WT264 tank trailer prior to the employee entry that occurred on March 7th, 2024.
Citation 01 Item 004
Type of Violation: Serious; $67,200
29 CFR 1910.146(d)(3): Under the permit-required confined space program required by 29 CFR 1910.146(c)(4), the employer did not develop and implement the means, procedures , and practices necessary for safe permit space entry operations, including but not limited to, the requirements specified in 29 CFR 1910.146(d)(3)(i) through 29 CFR 1910.146(d)(3)(vi):
The employer did not implement the means, procedures, and practices necessary for safe employee permit space entry conducted in the facility, including the employee entry into the WT264 tank trailer conducted on March 7th, 2024 . Deficiencies in the employer’s entry procedures included:
Failure to specify acceptable entry conditions,
Failure to provide each authorized entrant or that employee ‘s representative with the
opportunity to observe any monitoring or testing of permit spaces ,
Failure to purge , inert, flush, or ventilate the permit space as necessary to eliminate or control
atmospheric hazards, and
Failure to verify that conditions in the permit space were acceptable for entry throughout the
duration of authorized entry.
Citation 01 Item 005
Type of Violation: Serious; $67,200
29 CFR 1910.146(d)(5): Under the permit-required confined space program required by 29 CFR 1910.146(c)(4), the employer did not evaluate permit space conditions when entry operations were conducted by testing conditions in the permit space to determine if acceptable entry conditions existed before entry was authorized to begin:
The employer did not test conditions inside of permit-required confined spaces in the facility prior to employee entry, including the employee entry into the WT264 tank trailer that occurred on March 7th, 2024.
Citation 01 Item 006
Type of Violation: Serious; $67,200
29 CFR 1910.146(d)(6) : Under the permit-required confined space program required by 29 CFR 1910.146(c)(4), the employer did not provide at least one attendant outside the permit space into which entry was authorized for the duration of entry operations:
The employer did not provide at least one attendant outside of permit-required confined spaces in the facility during all employee entry operations, including the employee entry into the WT264 tank trailer that occurred on March 7th, 2024.
Citation 01 Item 007
Type of Violation: Serious; $67,200
29 CFR 1910.146(d)(10): Under the permit-required confined space program required by 29 CFR 1910.146(c)(4) , the employer did not develop and implement a system for the preparation, issuance, use, and cancellation of entry permits as required by 29 CFR 1910.146:
The employer did not develop and implement a system for the preparation, issuance, use, and cancellation of entry permits for the permit-required confined space entries conducted by employees , including the entry into the WT264 tank trailer that occurred on March 7th, 2024.
Citation 01 Item 008
Type of Violation: Serious; $67,200
29 CFR 1910.146(9)(3): The employer did not provide training that established employee proficiency in the duties required by 29 CFR 1910.146, Permit-required confined spaces , and did not introduce new or revised procedures, as necessary, for compliance:
The employer did not provide adequate confined space entry training for employees conducting permit confined space entries in the facility, including an employee who entered the WT264 tank trailer on March 7th, 2024.
Abatement Guidelines: The employer shall provide training for all employees whose work is
regulated by this section in order to develop the understanding , knowledge , and skills which
are necessary for the safe performance of the duties assigned under this section.
1) Training shall be provided to each affected employee:
a) Before the employee is first assigned duties under this section ;
b) Before there is a change in assigned duties;
c) Whenever there is a change in permit space operations that presents a hazard about which an employee has not previously been trained; and
d) Whenever the employer has reason to believe either that there are deviations from the permit space entry procedures required by paragraph (d)(3) of this section or that there are inadequacies in the employee’s knowledge or use of these procedures.
2) The training shall establish employee proficiency in the duties required by this section and shall introduce new or revised procedures, as necessary, for compliance with this section.
3) The employer shall certify that the training required by paragraphs (g)(1) through (g)(3)of this section has been accomplished. The certification shall contain each employee’s name, the signatures or initials of the trainers, and the dates of training. The certification shall be available for inspection by employees and their authorized representatives.
Citation 01 Item 009
Type of Violation: Serious; $11,200
29 CFR 1910.146(9)(4): The employer did not certify that the training required by 29 CFR 1910.146(g)(1) through 29 CFR 1910.146(g)(3) had been accomplished:
The employer did not certify that the required confined space entry training for employees conducting permit space entries in the facility had been completed prior to permit space entry procedures taking place , including an employee permit space entry into the WT264 tank trailer that occurred on March 7th, 2024.
Citation 01 Item 010
Type of Violation: Serious; $67,200
29 CFR 1910.146(k)(1): The employer did not evaluate the designated rescue team’s ability to comply with 29 CFR 1910.146(k)(1)(i)-(v):
The employer did not evaluate the rescue capabilities of the local emergency services prior to employees performing permit-required confined space entries in the facility , including the employee entry into the WT264 tank trailer that occurred on March 7th, 2024.
Citation 01 Item 011
Type of Violation: Serious; $67,200
29 CFR 1910.146(k)(3): A retrieval system or methods to facilitate a non-entry rescue was not used by an authorized entrant of a permit space:
The employer did not ensure that employees conducting permit space entries in the facility wore retrieval systems or other methods to facilitate non-entry rescue of entrants from a permit space, including during the employee entry into the WT264 tank trailer that occurred on March 7th, 2024.
Citation 01 Item 012
Type of Violation: Serious; $4,800
29 CFR 1910.1200(g)(8): The employer did not ensure that safety data sheets were readily accessible during each work shift to employees when they were in their work area(s):
Safety datasheets (SOS) for chemicals contained within truck tank trailers were not readily accessible to employees in their work areas.
CLICK HERE for the citations
