OSHA Cites Lowe’s for Exposing Workers to Potential Forklift Injuries & More

Work environments at big box stores like Walmart, Amazon, Kroger, Home Depot, and Lowe’s necessarily have pedestrians working in close proximity to forklifts on a routine basis. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) provides workplace safety guidelines that help ensure that all workers have safe environments. OSHA conducts inspections as a way of determining whether safety guidelines are being followed.

As a result of an inspection in January 2019, Lowe’s was also cited for a violation of 19100212 A03 II. The proposed penalty was $11,366. A description of the hazard follows:

• Point(s) of operation of machinery were not guarded to prevent employee(s) from having any part of their body in the danger zone(s) during operating cycle(s).

The following is a description of the hazard that Lowe’s was cited for:

• At the paint department, employees operated a Red Devil shaker #3, model #1015PG, and the guard did not close, exposing employees to nip point hazards.

Although no one was injured at Lowe’s in association with the citation, there was a similar hazard that occurred at a Rosenburg, Texas, jobsite. An employee was injured, and an inspection was initiated. The following describes the details of the accident and injury that occurred on March 24, 2023, as provided by OSHA:

• An employee was bending down to line up bobbins at the base of a machine. As he stood up, he placed his hand on the screen attached to the guard which then caved in. The employee’s hand was pulled into the machine, causing an avulsion and lacerations to the left forearm.

Learn more in Part 1 and this continuing series.

There is no intention on this website to intimate that entities or individuals have engaged in misdeeds. Providing assistance to workers who are seriously hurt or killed in on-the-job accidents in Texas and the families of all the employees who suffered fatal work injuries in cases when the employer is not a workers’ comp participant in this state is one of the purposes of this website.

–Guest Contributor

Written By: smchugh

smchugh