A passing car ignited the chemicals and set off a massive fire, killing Bulkamatic Transport Company's driver Donald Oswald. Titan often develops close relationships with job-starved cities. In these times, it is hard to get the attention of an OSHA inspector as there are so few of them. Regardless of who is to blame, OSHA is woefully ill-equipped to monitor the workplaces of America. On the surface this is a story about the untold daily horrors that still exist on today's assembly line.
Companies can turn inspectors away and delay inspections for months.
Fines are minimal and routinely reduced. Regrettably little has changed since this story appeared. The mainstream press has shown little interest in this story. There is a distressing lack of national groups focusing on injured workers. I encourage people interested in learning more to contact the United Steelworkers of America, Public Citizen, and the AFL-CIO, which studies worker injuries and deaths on the job, as well as government inspector per worker ratios.