A Valencia company has been penalized in connection with a preventable accident last year that resulted in a workplace death in Middlesex Township.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, an investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration resulted in a citation against Vorteq Coil Finishers LLC.
This settlement is in regards to an incident in September of 2023 in which 46-year-old Joseph Reyes died as a result of being instructed to clean a chrome roller on a coater machine while it was in operation. Reyes was then pulled into the machine and died as a result of traumatic asphyxiation.
The citation for two willful and serious violations of failure to implement lockout procedures and not installing machine guarding comes along with a penalty of just over $345,000. OSHA has also placed Vorteq in the agency’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program.