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:
