Houston, TX — A worker at a construction/remodel site was killed last summer (July 14, 2014) after being electrocuted. The worker wasn’t named, but OSHA recently identified the employer as Kilgore Industries, which is shown below on the map.
At the moment, it isn’t clear whether the accident happened at the Kilgore Industries facility or somewhere else. Since Kilgore Industries is a construction and remodeling company, it’s possible this accident happened at some other worksite.
Not many details were released, but OSHA said that the worker was electrocuted while performing some remodeling work. Later, OSHA cited Kilgore Industries for a “serious” violation to the amount of $7,000.
To our knowledge, Kilgore hasn’t made any statement about the accident.
Map of Kilgore Industries
View from the Road
Commentary:
I was doing a little research on this accident, because I was a little surprised that there wasn’t more coverage in the news back when this happened. When I looked at the citation given to this company from OSHA, I saw this:
No employer shall permit an employee to work in such proximity to any part of an electric power circuit that the employee could contact the electric power circuit in the course of work, unless the employee is protected against electric shock by deenergizing the circuit and grounding it or by guarding it effectively by insulation or other means.
Now, to me, that says that perhaps this worker was in an area that wasn’t very safe. Or, perhaps he wasn’t given the right tools to do his job. Either way, it seems that something clearly went wrong here and I have to say that I’m disappointed that more details aren’t being released. If this company was operating unsafely or having their workers do dangerous tasks, then people need to hear about that.
The Texas Labor Code is set up such that workers don’t really have much of a chance to hold their employers liable in the event that their negligence causes an accident. Instead, workers must use our workers’ comp benefits program to seek relief. As many people already know, that’s not exactly the “total package” that it’s made out to be — it’s more of a bare-minimum type of coverage. However, Texas law does allow workers to hold their employers accountable for gross negligence. Essentially, that’s when the employer does something that is willfully or wantonly negligent, such as asking someone to perform a dangerous task with no safety gear.
Obviously, I have no idea if this accident was caused by negligence or even gross negligence. But, my point is that when companies are allowed to operate unchecked and with dangerous practices, it’s the workers who pay the price. If the news media spent a little more time covering these types of accidents, I’m guessing employers & companies would be a little more incentivized to actually hold to their own safety standards. People are always more diligent when eyes are watching, in my opinion.
— Grossman Law Offices
