US: A court has ordered Fabcon Precast to pay a US$500,000 fine and serve two years of organisational probation for its violation of safety standards in connection to the death of a worker following an incident at its Grove City precast concrete plant on 6 June 2020. The Columbus Dispatch newspaper has reported that Zachary Ledbetter died of injuries resulting from crushing. He had entered a discharge chute with a colleague holding his feet in order to unjam a pneumatic discharge gate.
The court found that Ledbetter had received no specific training on the discharge function of the equipment. It noted that a broken handle on the machine had been left unrepaired for several months prior to the accident.
