OSHA Fines Restaurants $7k For Worker's Death

When you think of a hazard workplace, a restaurant probably isn't the first place to come to mind. However, a waitress has recently died after sustaining severe head trauma while working at a Fountain City, Wisconsin restaurant.

Officials say the 21-year-old waitress sustained severe trauma while working a day shift on December 1, 2014. The restaurant in question had used a food elevator system to transport food between the different levels, which OSHA says is a serious safety violation due to its lack of safeguards. The waitress reportedly reached inside the elevator after it was started but couldn't remove her hand in time, at which point she became stuck inside. 

In response to this tragic incident, the Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA) has fined the restaurant $7,000. According to a report by OSHA, the food elevator system dod not have the proper safeguards in place to prevent it from moving while workers reached their hands inside to place or take food. The food elevator should either have had the dumbwaiter disabled or mechanical locks and electrical contacts in place.

OSHA released the following statement in regards to this incident:

"Jammin Turtles, LLC, dba WingDam Saloon & Grill "Did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to caught-in hazards:

On the first floor and the second floor, employees operated a dumbwaiter (food elevator) system that was not equipped with mechanical locks and electric contacts on the hoistway access door to prevent movement of the dumbwaiter car while employees reached into the car body envelope to load and unload materials."