In July of 2015, a 21 year old worker at the Palo Duro Canyon State Park died in a fireworks explosion. At the time, she was taking inventory of the pyrotechnics that an outdoor musical festival was using. Because her employer, the Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation, hadn’t provided her with appropriate training or protective equipment, that young employee was left defenseless when several of the fireworks ignited.
“A 21-year-old worker, with three months of work experience under her belt, lost her life because Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation failed to provide appropriate training and protective equipment to workers handling pyrotechnics,” Elizabeth Linda Routh, OSHA’s area director in Lubbock, Texas, said in a statement.
In the first week of February, OSHA issued six citations to the Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation. The fines from those citations added up to $42,000, and the Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation has 15 days from the February 2nd issuance date to to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the citations and penalties* before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
In the face of this kind of tragedy, a company should do more than just make decisions about their fines. A health and safety program that allows workers to go into dangerous situations without adequate protection is a bad health and safety program and needs immediate replacement. Hopefully, the Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation will see the need for a rapid overhaul of their system.
In order to prevent further loss of life, the Foundation should implement safety procedures like those used in a safety software. Their new EHS program will need to use programs like safety softwares to track incidents and review necessary training schedules, so as to ensure that all workers are operating in a safe environment that they know how to handle in case of a crisis.
