Death of a Supermarket Worker was Preventable: OSHA

The Brooklyn, N.Y., store was cited for exit access and fall and chemical hazards.

  • Dec 18, 2014

According to a news release from OSHA, the death of a Brooklyn, N.Y., supermarket worker was preventable. The employee was fatally crushed between a cement wall and a forklift on June 10, 2014, as employees used an electrical pallet jack to push a broken forklift up a ramp to the supermarket's roof. As they did so, the forklift rolled back down the ramp and pinned the worker against the wall.

OSHA determined that the broken 8,600-pound forklift weighed twice the pallet jack's maximum capacity of 4,000 pounds, the defective forklift had not been removed from service as required, and workers had not been trained to operate the forklift or the pallet jack safely.

"The pallet jack and forklift were not used and moved correctly, which resulted in a needless, avoidable loss of a worker's life," said Kay Gee, OSHA's area director for Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens. "Tragically, Moisha's Kosher Discount Supermarket employees were not trained to use these machines safely and could not recognize their exposure to a deadly hazard."

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