This is an interesting citation, one that to me appears OSHA was not happy with this employer. As I read this decision, I was shocked that OSHA would have issued a citation, much less a Serious, in this situation. If all employers did 1/4 of what Cargill does at this facility for PRCS entry then there would be MUCH LESS tragedies in PRCSs! I usually do not mention company names in these types of postings, but when a company does things right I do believe they should be acknowledged and in this case Cargill was SPOT ON and should be recognized – not penalized. This case involved Cargill using the Topeka, KS Fire Department as their PRCS Rescue Service. OSHA took issue with the fact that it took 4-5 minutes for one of the stations to respond and when this station went out on other calls, the other stations were staffed with trained rescuers and even those stations could arrive within 4-7 minutes. The court even used response records to establish response times from the stations. I will add this, Cargill won this because the other stations were staffed with rescuers who too could arrive on site in a timely manner. Had this not been the case, this decision may have turned out in favor of OSHA. Here are the facts:
