Washington authorities fined the Camas paper mill operated by Georgia-Pacific nearly $650,000 in connection with the March 8 death of a worker, saying the fatality could have been avoided.
Machine operator Dakota Austin Cline, 32, was “crushed by a packing machine that had no guards in place to keep people out of harm’s way,” according to a notice from the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries.
Georgia-Pacific had removed permanent guards from the machine back in 2017 and replaced them with a fence that did not adequately protect workers from the machinery, the state found.
“They knew what needed to be done to make this equipment safer, but didn’t take action that could have prevented this worker’s death,” said Craig Blackwood, assistant director for occupational safety and health, in a press release on the Washington Department of Labor & Industries’ website.
Before his death, Cline asked four times in one hour for help fixing a large piece of equipment used for stacking boxes, the notice said.
It wasn’t until co-workers spotted a backup of boxes on the conveyor belt that they went to check out what was happening.
That’s when they found him dead.
The state investigation revealed several violations at the mill. Among them, the company failed to implement necessary safety protocols to prevent accidental machine activation.
Cline was also working alone at the time of the accident, contrary to safety regulations requiring periodic check-ins for employees in isolated areas. Witnesses reported that such check-ins had not been enforced for years, according to a press release on the labor department’s website.
A representative of Georgia-Pacific could not be contacted immediately, but Washington authorities said the company is appealing the fine.
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