Fatal accident results in fine for concrete company

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA - An Atlanta-based concrete company has been fined $16,800 for an accident in which a maintenance worker fell into a silo filled with cement powder and suffocated. <br> <br> Thomas Concrete&#39;s plant in Raleigh, North Carolina had four serious safety violations, says Tom Hayes, a supervisor in the state Department of Labor&#39;s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. <br> <br> Hayes sayd 49-year-old Lathan Earl Williams of Raleigh, had climbed into the silo October 23 to knock chunks of powder loose from the structure&#39;s side. He was hanging from an internal ladder, but lost his grip and fell through several tons of the fine cement powder to the bottom of the silo. <br> <br> The department says Thomas Concrete failed to mark the silo as a dangerous confined space, produce a written safety program for entering such a space, train employees in that safety program and install a safety rail around the lip of the bin. Each violation carries a $4,200 fine. <br> <br> Bob Schultz, human resources and safety manager for the Raleigh division of the Atlanta-based company, says the plant had harnesses on site and that employees had been given written and video training on how to use them. The harnesses were to be used while working around the plant, but no one was supposed to enter the silo, he said.