Valero refinery in Benicia hit with record fine over worker's death
(Photo courtesy Google Street View, Graphic by Solano NewsNet)
Valero and three other companies have been hit with $1.75 million in fines over the death of a worker at the Benicia refinery plant last year.
From that fine, Valero will pay $528,000, while a Houston-based safety company called Total Safety will pay $988,000, after 35-year-old Luis Gutierrez died from asphyxiation last November.
Gutierrez was an employee of J.T. Thorpe and Son, an engineering company that did business with Valero on a contract basis. Thorpe and Son was fined $135,000 in connection with the incident.
Investigators with the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal OSHA) say Gutierrez fainted after a welding torch he was using leaked argon gas. After he fainted, he fell backward from a ladder. He was wearing a lanyard around his neck, and the lanyard hooked onto an object that caused him to suspend in midair.
Firefighters were dispatched to the refinery to free Gutierrez. Fire medics tried unsuccessfully to revive him.
Investigators later found that Valero had been notified that a different employee had reported symptoms associated with dizziness, which can occur when they work in an enclosed space where argon gas is present.
Despite this report, the refinery didn’t ensure its workers were equipped with a respiratory system and didn’t conduct its own investigation into potential leaks, Cal OSHA said.
The $1.75 million in fines imposed against Valero and the other three companies are the highest fines ever levied against a refinery in connection with the death of a worker.