ABC Polymer Industries LLC, Workplace Manslaughter, Alabama 2023

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – In a devastating workplace tragedy, ABC Polymer Industries LLC has been held accountable for a willful violation of an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard that led to the death of a worker. The charge involves an Aug. 16, 2017, incident at the Helena, Alabama, plant owned by ABC Polymer Industries LLC, in which a worker was pulled into a cluster of unguarded moving rollers and killed.

The U.S. District Judge Annemarie Carney Axon for the Northern District of Alabama ordered ABC Polymer to pay $242,928 in restitution to the family of the deceased worker, a fine of $167,928, and ordered the company to serve two years on probation under conditions of a safety compliance plan.

According to court documents, ABC Polymer operated multiple plastic extrusion lines at its facility, which molded raw materials into flat rectangular plastic sheets. The machinery pulled the sheets through a series of rollers arranged in clusters before cutting them into plastic threads or tapes, which were sold for use in various products.

However, ABC Polymer was aware that its employees routinely raised the guard on its machines to cut tangled plastic off the rollers, thereby operating the machines without the required guarding. ABC Polymer also trained its employees to cut tangled plastic off the rollers while the rollers were in operation. ABC Polymer admitted that it knew or should have known that these practices exposed employees to a risk of injuries and death in violation of federal law.

As a result of the company’s reckless disregard for worker safety, ABC Polymer has been charged with a class B misdemeanor for willfully failing to follow an OSHA safety standard, where the failure caused the death of an employee.

This case was investigated by the OSHA of the U.S. Department of Labor, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert Posey and Ryan Rummage for the Northern District of Alabama and Trial Attorneys Ethan Eddy and William Shapiro of the Environment and Natural Resources Division’s Environmental Crimes Section prosecuted the case.

ABC Polymer Industries LLC, a Helena, Alabama-based company, has been found guilty of a willful violation of an OSHA standard, resulting in the tragic loss of a worker’s life. The company has been ordered to pay $242,928 in restitution and a fine of $167,928, and has been placed on two years of probation under a safety compliance plan.

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