Workplace Hazards Nets Illinois Truck Repair Company $326,000 in Fines

A 48-year-old worker entered a tanker-trailer in Lemont, Illinois, to inspect it as part of an annual U.S. Department of Transportation requirement and was overcome from exposure to bleach and chlorine gas. The worker was found unconscious in the tanker-trailer, he later died of his injuries.

An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined his employer, B & R Repair Inc. of Lemont, failed to identify and evaluate atmospheric hazards in the confined space, train workers on the confined space program, and ensure employees filled out a confined-space permit before entry into a confined space. OSHA also found the employer failed to equip the worker rescuing the unconscious employee with a retrieval system, implement its own procedures for summoning rescue and emergency services, and numerous other violations of its permit-required confined space regulations. The company was also cited for failing to provide fall protection to an employee working on top of tanker trailers and provide training on fall hazards, respirators and hazard communication.

In total, OSHA cited two willful and 10 serious violations and proposed penalties of $326,306.

B & R Repair is an American truck and trailer repair company that provides services to all makes and models of tractors, tankers, trailers, trucks, buses and various cargo transport units. In addition to the main facility in Lemont, Illinois, the company has service locations in Lansing and Wampum, Pennsylvania.