Oregon OSHA has cited Mid-Columbia Lumber Products for six violations of job safety rules in connection with an accident at its Madras facility.

Two of the violations – for hazardous energy and unguarded machine – were repeat offenses for which the company was previously cited in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

An investigation of Mid-Columbia Lumber Products was opened in September 2019, following an incident in which an employee reportedly attempted to put a moving chain back on the track of a chain conveyor while it was still operating. As a result, the worker’s left hand was mutilated in the machine’s rotating sprocket. The worker’s left ring finger and pinky fingertip required amputation, and pins were installed in two other crushed fingers.

The Culver-based company manufactures framing lumber at its Madras plant.

“There is simply no reason to expose workers to hazards that we have long known how to control or eliminate,” Michael Wood, administrator for Oregon OSHA, stated in a press release. “To repeatedly violate safety standards – standards that exist to protect people from harm – is the height of recklessness.”

Under Oregon OSHA rules, penalties multiply with repeat violations. The citation issued in this case carries a total proposed penalty of $8,610.

Mid-Columbia Lumber Products did not promptly respond to a request for comments on the citation.

Altogether, Oregon OSHA cited the company for:

• failing to maintain an effective centralized safety committee (including no written safety and health policy; not posting safety committee minutes; not training committee members on hazard identification and not conducting quarterly inspections of the facility);
• failing to conduct periodic inspections to ensure energy control procedures were being followed;
• failing to develop, document and use procedures to control potentially hazardous energy when employees are doing service or maintenance work on a powered machine;
• failing to provide machine guarding to protect employees from hazards created by point of operation, nip points, rotating parts, flying chips and sparks;
• failing to train employees in the safe application, use and removal of energy control devices; and
• failing to maintain and produce documents related to recording workplace injuries and illnesses.

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