Alabama Paper Mill Worker Died After Electrocution, Labor Dept Says

Oct 26, 2023

A paper mill in Alabama told federal authorities that the cause of death of a worker who died after being electrocuted was actually a heart attack, the Department of Labor says.

The worker died from electrocution at the Maplesville facility on September 28 2022 when another worker tried to replace the motor belt on a machine without de-energizing it, the DOL said. The department said that the company – South Coast Paper LLC – had "willfully" violated safety standards, including failing to implement procedures to protect employees performing maintenance on machinery.

According to a report by the DOL's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the company reported the incident as a heart attack and asked the local coroner's office to not list electrocution as the cause of death.

"The employer reported this incident to OSHA as a heart attack, the coroner's office called OSHA to report that it was an electrocution," OSHA wrote in its report. "The company's lawyer contacted the coroner's office asking them to change the cause of death from electrocution to heart attack."

The plant's manager and the company's general manager, however, told an OSHA certified safety and health officer that the worker had died from electrocution, OSHA wrote. It added that the company had already written witness statements listing the cause of death as electrocution.

South Coast Paper did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside of regular working hours.

OSHA said that the electrocution happened when the employee, who had been at the company for 12 years, was working on the line of a sheeter machine with two other workers when they alerted the night shift supervisor that something was wrong with the conveyor's motor.

The supervisor decided to replace the motor but didn't lockout or tagout any of the equipment in the process, and when the employee grabbed a metal rail connected to the conveyor system he was shocked by electricity, OSHA said. CPR was administered but he was pronounced dead on site, OSHA said.

Lockout devices are placed on energy-isolating devices to hold them in a safe mode and prevent the equipment from being controlled, while tagout devices indicate that the equipment can't be used.

OSHA wrote in its report that the supervisor hadn't had any formal or on-the-job electrical or lockout and tagout training and "had minimal knowledge of electrical practices."

OSHA said that a local police chief had been informed "that tampering of the site was done before and after they had left." This included cleaning out the area where the motor was located and adding a lockout/tagout sign to the machine.

"LO/TO was not done for machine; but was in place when pictures were given to PD," OSHA wrote in the report, attaching a picture of a small handwritten sign stuck on a cardboard box that simply read "lockout."

South Coast Paper "does not have energy control procedures in place," and no locks or tags are available to maintenance employees other than two personal locks that one worker brought from his previous employer, OSHA wrote.

OSHA proposed $227,040 in penalties. It noted that in 2021, OSHA had inspected South Coast Paper's facility in Burlington, New Jersey after an employee lost three fingers while servicing a machine and had issued a citation to the company related to its energy control procedures.

"There is no reason to perform maintenance on machinery without first taking all steps to de-energize that piece of equipment. Doing otherwise places workers at serious risk for injury and death," Jose Gonzalez, OSHA's director for its Mobile, Alabama office said in a statement.

"South Coast Paper's failure to follow established safety procedures cost this worker their life and has left family, friends and co-workers to mourn."