Comment by KnuthIsGod | Hacker News Reader

Comment by KnuthIsGod | Hacker News Reader

"You was not the first person to lose his life during construction of the EV plant and its suppliers. In April 2023, Victor Gamboa died on the megasite after falling 60 feet to his death.

Bryan County EMS records show in a 16-month period there were 53 calls for services at the site, including over a dozen for traumatic injuries. One of these injuries included another forklift accident, while one involved a worker being caught in a conveyor belt.

In March, prior to You’s death, a construction worker on the site went to the hospital after being seriously injured in a pipe explosion.

In May 2025, 27-year-old Allen Kowalski died on the HL-GA Battery construction site after a metal frame fell on him.

OSHA has opened at least 15 investigations into incidents at the site, including You’s death and the March pipe explosion."

And there will be more

>The company was ultimately fined just under $10,000 for his death.

The cost is tooo low to prevent the company from protecting employees.

At least it's a rare case where leadership sees the consequences of their lackluster safety practices

Yeah, the $1,800 fine for not filing a worker's injury with OSHA is also strange, because I don't see how it would cost a company less than $1,800 to pay a lawyer to complete and file that form.

I think this is likely a process problem. Having been a safety officer for a lab in the past, there are two types of injury reports. One for regular injuries, you have a week to report. Serious injuries need to be reported within 24 hours. These are death and amputation injuries (there might be more, it's been a few years).

Anyway I suspect they missed the deadline because it slipped through the cracks.

Whatever the cause is, the fine is so low that it's actually cheaper to simply not comply with the regulation.

I would assume that OSHA fining the company does help out a subsequent wrongful death suit.

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