Safety Matters

Members Invited to SWANA Strategic Plan Town Hall – Goal 1

SWANA’s five-year Strategic Plan – Forward, Together identifies four goals to focus SWANA’s work in the coming years. Throughout 2023, SWANA will be holding virtual town halls on each goal to discuss the objectives and strategies necessary to accomplish them and solicit input from members on how best to do so.

The first town hall on March 23 will address Goal 1 of the Strategic Plan, to get off the Top 10 list of most dangerous jobs. SWANA members are invited to learn more about how this goal was chosen and the ways that the association plans to achieve it over the next five years. Objectives include developing resources to support employer safety programs and collaboration with government agencies and other partners.

Learn more about the Strategic Plan here and join us by registering here.

OSHA Issues New Enforcement Guidance

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued new enforcement guidance expanding the instance-by-instance citation policy to address employers that repeatedly expose workers to life-threatening hazards or fail to comply with certain workplace safety and health requirements.

OSHA Regional Administrators and Area Office Directors now have the authority to cite certain types of violations as “instance-by-instance citations” for cases where the agency identifies “high-gravity” serious violations of OSHA standards specific to certain conditions where the language of the rule supports a citation for each instance of non-compliance. These conditions include lockout/tagout, machine guarding, permit-required confined space, respiratory protection, falls, trenching and for cases with other-than-serious violations specific to recordkeeping.

In its updated policy, OSHA outlines factors to be considered for instance-by-instance citations:

• An employer has received a willful, repeat or failure-to-abate violation within the past five years “where that classification is current.”
• The proposed citations are for a fatality/catastrophe.
• The employer has failed to report a fatality, inpatient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye.
• The proposed recordkeeping citations are related to injury or illness(es) that occurred as a result of a serious hazard.

The change is intended to ensure OSHA personnel are applying the full authority of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA Act) where increased citations are needed to discourage non-compliance. The new guidance covers enforcement activity in general industry, agriculture, maritime and construction industries, and becomes effective 60 days from Jan. 26, 2023.

In a second action, OSHA reminded its Regional Administrators and Area Directors of their authority not to group violations, and instead cite them separately to more effectively encourage employers to comply with the intent of the OSH Act.

Existing guidance on instance-by-instance citations are outlined in the OSHA Field Operations Manual, and CPL 02-00-080, “Handling of Cases to be Proposed for Violation-by-Violation Penalties.”

For more information, please visit OSHA’s Enforcement website and Press Release.

Accidents in the News

Through 1/31/23

Gonzales, CA – A 39-year-old spotter at a landfill was killed when a garbage truck backed into him. It was reportedly raining heavily at the time, which likely reduced visibility. MORE

Brooklyn, NY – At around 10:00 p.m., a 58-year-old pedestrian was struck and killed by a garbage truck making a left turn at an intersection. MORE

Chandler, AZ – At about 6:15 a.m., the driver of a tractor-trailer hauling garbage to an area landfill collided with two passenger cars, pushing them into another truck and two other cars. The two cars that were crushed between the trucks burst into flames, killing five people. MORE

Bradenton, FL – A 71-year-old woman was killed after her walker was struck by the right side of a garbage trucks, causing her to fall to the pavement in a parking lot. MORE

Sherman Oaks, CA – A person believe to be unhoused was struck and killed by a garbage truck. MORE

Scottsville, MI – A pickup truck lost control on a slippery roads, spun out, and went into the path of an oncoming garbage truck, killing the pickup driver. MORE

Riverside, CA – A 58-year-old man was killed y when the car he was driving struck the rear of a parked garbage truck. MORE

2023 Safety Events

APWA Solid Waste Summit
March 22, 2023
Online
Click here to learn more »

SWANA Strategic Plan Town Hall – Goal 1
March 23, 2023
Online
Click here to learn more »

National Stand-Down to Prevent Struck-By Incidents
April 17 – 21, 2023
National
Click here to learn more »

Workers Memorial Day & National Day of Mourning
April 28, 2023
US & Canada
US – Click here to learn more »
Canada – Click here to learn more »

National Stand-Down to Prevent Falls
May 1 – 5, 2023
National
Click here to learn more »

National Forklift Safety Day
June 13, 2023
National
Click here to learn more »

Trench Safety Stand-Down
June 14–18, 2023
National
Click here to learn more »