Fabcon Precast pleads guilty to willfully violating OSHA safety rule resulting in employee death
Fabcon Precast LLC, a Delaware corporation with a manufacturing facility in Grove City, Ohio, has pleaded guilty in federal court in the Southern District of Ohio to willfully violating an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rule. The company, which manufactures precast concrete panels, was charged in connection with the death of 20-year-old employee Zachary Ledbetter.
On June 6, 2020, Ledbetter, a batch operator at Fabcon since January 2020, was working with the facility’s only concrete mixer, which discharges concrete through a pneumatic door. The pneumatic energy used to power the door is supposed to be released by an exhaust valve, rendering it inoperable during maintenance. However, the handle to the valve had broken off months before and was not replaced. When the door failed to close after a concrete batch was released, Ledbetter attempted to free it manually. The door then closed on his head, trapping him. He was later transported to a hospital and died five days later.
Federal law classifies willful failure to follow an OSHA safety standard that results in an employee’s death as a class B misdemeanor—the only federal criminal charge available for such violations. The case was investigated by the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General and prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Cullman. The announcement was made by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Kelly A. Norris for the Southern District of Ohio, and Acting Special Agent-in-Charge Megan Howell of the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General, Great Lakes Region.
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