The Department of Energy’s enforcement arm has told two contractors it will investigate a fatal tree clearing accident in August near the Central Training Facility at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee.
In a pair of Sept. 8 letters, the Office of Enforcement within DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments informed East Tennessee Mechanical Contractors and subcontractor The Davey Tree Expert Company, doing business as Cortese Tree Specialists, of plans to investigate worker safety and health program problems.
The fatal injury happened when the worker was struck by a tree branch on Aug. 11. “After the event occurred, the worker was hospitalized, provided life support, and later succumbed to the injury” on Aug. 18, the office said in the letters.
The DOE Oak Ridge National Laboratory Site Office reported the fatal accident into the agency’s Occurrence Reporting and Processing System on Aug. 22.
“Although investigating the fatal injury will be the general purpose of this investigation, additional issues relating to the scope, nature and extent of compliance,” enforcement office director Anthony Pierpoint, said in the letters.
East Tennessee Mechanical Contractors is a Knoxville-based, minority-owned business with a “roads and grounds” contract at Oak Ridge, according to the company’s website. The Davey Tree Expert Company d/b/a Cortese is also Knoxville-based and was founded in 1977, according to its website.
A Sept. 11 notice with a link to the letters can be found here.
