California Division Of Occupational Safety And Health

Tosco Corp. was fined a record $277,750 for workplace violations as a result of a fatal Jan. 21 explosion at its oil refinery in Martinez, Calif. The fine is the highest ever levied by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health against a petroleum refinery firm. Tosco said it is reviewing the fine and will make a decision in 10 days on whether to appeal all or part of it.

State regulators have fined two warehouse operating companies more than a quarter of a million dollars for allowing unsafe working conditions at four San Bernardino County distribution centers. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health said Wednesday that it issued $256,445 in citations for more than 60 violations found during a recent inspection of warehouses in Chino. Cited were warehouse owner National Distribution Centers and its temporary staffing contractor, Tri State Staffing.

After investigating the death of a subway construction worker in Universal City, state inspectors Friday cited a contractor for for five serious worker-safety violations and imposed fines totaling $18,750. The action by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health came six months after Brian Bailey, 36, was killed when struck in the head by a grab hook on a hoist used to lift the 30-ton bucket of dirt and rocks out of the tunnel. Cal/OSHA cited tunnel builder Traylor Bros.

Rosa Frias was working the evening shift at Bimbo Bakeries in South San Francisco when she reached into her bread-making machine to remove a hunk of dried dough. She screamed as her left hand, and then her lower arm, were sucked into the gears of the Winkler stringline proofer. That night, the limb had to be amputated above the elbow. The incident drew a $21,750 fine from the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health. But Bimbo paid nothing. It appealed to the Cal-OSHA Appeals Board, which dismissed the case on a technicality: The inspector had retired and Cal-OSHA could not prove that he had had permission to enter the factory.

After probing the death of a subway construction worker in Universal City, state inspectors Friday cited a contractor for five serious worker safety violations and imposed fines of $18,750. The action by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health came six months after Brian Bailey, 36, was killed when struck in the head by a so-called grab hook on a hoist used to lift the 30-ton "muck bucket" of dirt and rocks out of the tunnel.

State officials will begin their investigation today into a weekend accident at Knott's Berry Farm that injured a Calico Railroad ride conductor trapped under the train. The ride remains closed pending completion of the investigation. The injured employee, Carlos Garcia, was in stable condition Sunday at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange, where he was being treated for injuries to both legs.

A state order requiring Disneyland to overhaul a ride that left a 4 1/2-year-old boy with severe brain damage is sparking debate over whether theme park regulations now being drafted should require safety improvements in similarly designed rides. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health on Friday called on Disneyland to add entryway closures and sensor-equipped guards around the base of cars on the Roger Rabbit Cartoon Spin.

The safety manager at Disneyland is a top contender to run the state agency that enforces amusement park safety laws -- a possibility that is prompting concern among industry watchdogs. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to name Richard Warner as director of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health as early as this week, according to sources inside the agency.

In the first case of its kind in California, a major contractor on the Metro Rail subway project in North Hollywood has been cited and fined $1,750 for violating new worker safety regulations aimed at protecting employees of other companies working on the same job.

Scaled Composites, the fledgling space tourism company founded by rocket pioneer Burt Rutan, was fined $25,870 on Friday as a result of an accident last July that killed three workers at the firm's Mojave, Calif., testing facility. The fine covered five violations of workplace safety codes, including a failure to maintain a safe working environment and to properly train workers handling hazardous materials, according to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health.

The head of California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health said Monday he will personally oversee a "rigorous and effective" criminal investigation into the Dec. 29 chemistry lab fire that killed a UCLA staff research assistant. Cal/OSHA Chief Len Welsh's pledge came after a civil probe last month resulted in one regulatory and three "serious" violations, and fines totaling $31,875. The family of the research assistant, Sheri Sangji, had criticized the review as inadequate.

State regulators performed a shoddy investigation and let UCLA off too lightly for violations stemming from a chemistry lab fire that killed a staff research assistant, the victim's family contends in papers filed with Cal-OSHA and the Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board. Sheri Sangji, 23, suffered severe burns over 43% of her body when an experiment with air-sensitive chemicals burst into flame Dec. 29 and ignited her clothing.

Scaled Composites, the fledgling space tourism company founded by rocket pioneer Burt Rutan, was fined $25,870 on Friday as a result of an accident last July that killed three workers at the firm's Mojave, Calif., testing facility. The fine covered five violations of workplace safety codes, including a failure to maintain a safe working environment and to properly train workers handling hazardous materials, according to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health.

In what may be the first action of its kind, California workplace safety regulators have charged that the duties performed by housekeepers at a hotel -- scrubbing, bed making, vacuuming -- violate the state's repetitive-motion rules. A citation issued late last month by the Division of Occupational Safety and Health identified eight infractions at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport hotel.

The February fire that killed two workers remodeling a house near UCLA resulted from a painting contractor's serious lapses in job safety, state investigators have concluded. Cal/OSHA officials said this week that they have filed three civil citations against the Beverly Hills contractor, Alan Silverstein Inc. The most serious citation said the employer failed to vent "flammable vapors" from the crawl space under the home where the two employees were trapped by flames.

After a second day of discussions with SeaWorld officials, Cal/OSHA on Friday agreed to withdraw a report that predicted that a trainer at the park will someday be killed by a killer whale. The agency agreed to rewrite it's investigators' report to stick to only the facts of a Nov. 29 incident in which a whale dragged a trainer to the bottom of the pool at Shamu Stadium several times before he escaped.

A state order requiring Disneyland to overhaul a ride that left a 4-year-old boy with severe brain damage is sparking debate over whether theme-park regulations now being drafted should require safety improvements in similarly designed rides. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health on Friday called on Disneyland to add entryway closures and sensor-equipped guards around the base of cars on the Roger Rabbit Car Toon Spin.

A contractor on the Metro Rail subway project was cited by state officials Monday for serious safety violations in connection with the July death of a construction worker in Universal City. The citations came less than six months after the same company, Tutor-Saliba-Perini, was cited for violating state safety laws in the death of another worker in February.

The deaths of three ski patrol members at Mammoth Mountain earlier this year might have been prevented had resort officials properly trained employees, posted more warning signs and written procedures for how to deal with toxic volcanic vents, state regulators said Friday.

At Cesar Chavez's funeral, his grandchildren placed on the altar a 12-inch tool known as el cortito, a relic of Chavez's crusade to ease the pain of farmworkers who stooped for hours as they yanked out weeds with the short-handled hoe. California banned the tool in 1975, citing evidence that it caused debilitating back injuries.