The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has been ordered to pay a $176,000 fine for the electrocution of employee Maximiliano Martinez in Benicia, California earlier this year. Martinez, a PG&E utility worker, was killed while upgrading an underground transformer with 12,000 volt power lines feeding into the vault that held the transformer. Martinez, age 26, was pronounced dead at the scene.
After reviewing the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal-OSHA) report on the incident, the California Department of Industrial Relations levied the $176,000 fine. Cal-OSHA found PG&E was lax on enforcement of safety rules and had committed a “serious, willful accident-related” violation of safety rules. According to Cal-OSHA, a “willful violation” occurs “where evidence shows that the employer committed an intentional and knowing … violation and the employer is conscious of the fact that what he is doing constitutes a violation of safety law.”
Martinez’ death is the sixth PG&E death investigated by Cal-OSHA. The utility was fined almost $40,000 in a 2008 electrocution. So far, PG&E has not commented on the fine.
PG&E’s overall safety record has been called into question recently by the gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, California that killed seven people.
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