Camden Park exposes employees to serious workplace safety hazards

Employer name: Waverly Entertainment Inc., doing business as Camden Park, at 5000 Waverly Road in Huntington, West Virginia.

Citations issued: On Dec. 10, 2015, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations for 40 serious and five other-than-serious violations.

Investigation findings: OSHA's Charleston Area Office initiated an inspection in June in response to a complaint. The serious violations include:

• Employees exposed to fall, electrical, chemical, and amputation hazards;
• Obstructed exit routes that were not visibly marked;
• Lack of machine guarding; and
• No written hazard communication plan for workers that use or could be exposed to chemicals.

The other-than-serious violations were due to the company's failure to record occupational illness and injuries on the OSHA 300A form, require employees to use personal protective equipment, conduct a monthly inspection and annual maintenance check on a portable fire extinguisher, and prevent water from entering an electric panel box.

Proposed penalties: $65,100

Quote: "Establishing and implementing a comprehensive injury and illness prevention program is critical for protecting workers from hazards. Many of the hazardous conditions we found could have been identified and corrected had recommended program elements been in practice here," said Prentice Cline, director of OSHA's Charleston Office. "Employers are responsible for ensuring a safe and healthful workplace and will be held legally accountable when they fail to do so."

View the citations: http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/WaverlyEntertainmentInc_1073479.pdf

To ask questions; obtain compliance assistance; file a complaint; or report amputations, eye loss, workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA's toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency's Charleston Area Office at 304-347-5937.