Arizona OSHA

Federal OSHA is assessing whether Arizona’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (ADOSH) is meeting its obligation as an approved State OSHA program. The federal government’s scrutiny was prompted by a formal complaint, as well as investigative reporting by Emily Bregel and Tony Rich of the Arizona Daily Star. Both noted that the Industrial Commission of Arizona (ICA) routinely discounts the findings of ADOSH’s safety inspectors. The ICA’s decisions result in the severity classification of violations being downgraded (e.g., from serious to non-serious) and reduction in proposed monetary…

Richard Johnson’s work-related death could have been prevented. That’s how I see the findings of the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health (ADOSH) in the agency’s citations against his employer, Southwest Fabrication. The 31 year-old was working in January 2015 at the company’s facility in Phoenix, Arizona. The initial press reports indicated that his clothes got entangled in a metal fabrication machine. I wrote about the incident shortly after it was reported by local press. Inspectors with ADOSH conducted an inspection at the facility following the fatal incident. The agency…

Richard Johnson, 31 suffered fatal traumatic injuries on Monday, January 12, 2015 while working at Southwest Fabrication’s facility in Phoenix, AZ ABC15 reports: It was the worker’s last shift at the company (he was moving on to a new job.)[His aunt alerted me that this report is incorrect.] “His clothes got entangled in a metal fabrication machine.” A former employee indicated he was involved in a serious incident at the plant in September 2014. ‘No one ever talked to me about safety or how to use the equipment.  … ‘My shirt got caught around the spinning bar. I was pulled into the machine…