In this photo taken the day after a fatal incident Georgia Pacific in Camas, a perimeter gate around the packing machine is shown with non-interlock doors. Following the death, Georgia Pacific installed interlock magnet doors that will not open until power has been shut off and a computer verifies no energy is getting to or being stored in the machine. (Contributed by Washington L&I)Photo Gallery
Georgia Pacific has been fined nearly $650,000 by the state in the workplace death of a 32-year-old Camas paper mill employee who was crushed by a packing machine March 8.
After an investigation, the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries cited and fined Georgia Pacific $648,292 in August for violation of fundamental safety rules that directly contributed to Dakota Cline’s death.
Cline, who had worked for the mill since 2022, was killed while working on a machine involved in the plant’s packing process.
According to a news release, the department found Georgia Pacific failed to follow basic procedures to make sure machinery would not accidentally turn on.
Violations include:
Not ensuring that when permanent guards are removed, they are replaced with permanent equivalent guards or with adequate temporary safeguards as required by code.
Not ensuring procedures were used to protect employees who work in isolated areas.
Not ensuring employees completely isolate machine or equipment from power sources or that the equipment was turned off.
Cline “sustained fatal injuries while working underneath the B side Unitizer stacker arms,” according to the statement.
Before the 5 p.m. incident that resulted in Cline’s death, the Hazel Dell man called four times in one hour to ask for assistance troubleshooting a large piece of equipment for stacking boxes in preparation for shipping.
Mill employees interviewed by Camas police Sgt. Brian Salwasser following the incident said they had last spoken to Cline about 4 p.m.
When the employees noticed boxes getting backed up on the conveyor belt, they waited 15 minutes before going to investigate, according to a police report. They found the 32-year-old dead, crushed between the large metal arms that help feed the boxes through the machine and the conveyor belt.
Both management and workers told inspectors that the permanent safety guards on the machine were taken off in 2017. They were replaced with a fence around the machine, but the fence didn’t stop people from getting too close to dangerous parts that could cause serious injury or death.
“Tragically, our investigation found this fatal incident could have been prevented,” Craig Blackwood, assistant director for L&I’s Division of Occupational Safety & Health, said in a news release. “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.”
Georgia Pacific is appealing L&I’s decision.
Money collected from workplace fines goes into the state’s workers’ compensation supplemental pension fund, which supports workers and families of those who have died on the job in Washington.
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