legal developments Safety insight: Try not to ignore the lessons that can be learned from injury incidents – always investigate incidents after the fact to find out whether there’s a safer way to do the job. What happened: A crew member was injured when a pipe fell from a stack and landed on him. Four years later, another employee was pinned between two pipes when a crane operator lifted a pipe from the bottom of a pile and the pipe landed on him. The staffer suffered a broken pelvis. What people did: A few months later, two workers were told to extend a stack of heavy steel pipes that were 36 inches in diameter and 40 feet in length. The pipes each weighed 4 tons and were stacked nine high. While the men were working, the stack of pipes collapsed on them and pinned them to the ground. One of the staff members died, and the other man was severely injured. Legal challenge: The injured worker and the family of the dead crew member sued the company, claiming that the two previous incidents put the company on notice that an injury was sure to happen. Result: The employer won. The court tossed out the lawsuit. The judge ruled that the injured employee and the family of the dead staffer were entitled to workers’ comp benefits but nothing more. The court said the hurt worker and the family failed to prove that the organization intended to injure the two men, which was the legal bar they needed to reach in order to obtain damages beyond workers’ comp. The skinny: Remember: It’s hard for injured staffers to prove that their employer intended to injure them. Cite: Fredericks and Estate of Woody v. GH Cranes and Components USA and Jindal Tubular, U.S. District Court, S.D. Mississippi, No. 1:25- cv-222, 4/13/26. horror stories Summary An employee removing rainwater from the top of a tarp tumbled into a vat of toxic sludge and wastewater. The incident After he was assigned to remove rainwater from a tarp that covered a water digester at the Sunshine Raisin Corp. plant in Fowler, CA, Juan Patino procured a pump, placed it in a cart and drove to the digester, which is a pond of toxic sludge, water and chemicals that break down waste. Patino set up the pump and began removing the rainwater from the tarp. However, he was unable to get the water off one section of the tarp, so he leaned over and began trying to push the water off. Suddenly, the tarp ripped and Patino plunged into the vat of toxic sludge. The response When Patino failed to check out at the end of his shift, coworkers began searching for him. They found his hard hat and work cart near the digester. They also noticed a tear in the tarp, so they contacted the local sheriff’s office. Emergency responders quickly realized that they couldn’t safely enter the digester because of the toxic substances it contained, so specialized dive teams from Utah were called in. The teams spent several hours unsuccessfully looking for Patino. When the teams returned to the digester the following morning, however, they noticed that Patino’s body had floated to the top of the water, and they were able to get him out of the digester. Unfortunately, the crew member was already dead. The aftermath Patino, 39, left behind a wife and five children. Said Fowler police chief Greg Gularte, who was involved in the rescue, “It’s a traumatic event; traumatic for the business and its workers, and traumatic for the family that lost a loved one.” August 17, 2026 Safety Alert for Supervisors 3 You make the call: The decision (See case on page 1) No. The employer lost. The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission upheld the fine. The commission said the employer couldn’t dodge the penalty by claiming that the defective scaffolding had been installed by a contract company. Here’s why: The organization’s employees were the ones standing on the scaffold, so the employer had a legal duty to make sure its people weren’t exposed to hazardous conditions, no matter who set up the equipment to begin with. According to the commission, the company had been working at the site for five days, yet its supervisors failed to inspect the scaffolding to make sure it was safe. And while some of the workers were wearing fall protection gear, some of them weren’t, so the fine was valid. What it means: Check the work of contractors It pays to remember that you have the ultimate responsibility for ensuring the safety of your crew members. Even if equipment has been installed by someone else, you still have to make sure the workplace is OK for your people. Action step: Always inspect scaffolding and other equipment set up by contractors and verify it’s safe before allowing your crew members to use it. Based on Secretary of Labor v. C Pacific Corp. Man dead because employer ignored two prior incidents Worker tumbles into digester filled with toxic sludge, waste