Washington ― Federal workplace safety officials found multiple violations and issued a fine of about $26,500 to a U.S. Postal Service facility in Allen Park this month after a 36-year-old Trenton man and Air Force veteran died of asphyxiation inside a mail-handling machine there in November.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration this past week posted the findings of its probe and inspection of the Postal Service’s Detroit Network Distribution Center in Allen Park, including five violations rated “serious” related to the facility’s “lockout/tagout” procedures and training.
Lockout-tagout is a safety procedure meant to ensure that a machine or piece of equipment is stopped, isolated and powered down prior to employees performing repairs or maintenance work, with the goal of making sure the machine can’t restart and cause harm to an individual.
After the death of Nicholas Acker in November, another employee at the facility alleged that Postal Service management at the Allen Park facility regularly pressured staff to look for fallen letters while heavy machinery with massive conveyor belts was operating.
OSHA initially issued a $66,200 penalty to the facility for specific violations, but that total was reduced to $26,481 after an “informal” settlement with the Postal Service this month, according to agency records.
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