Florida teen's death in cement mixer was his employer's fault, investigators say

• Investigators say a pipe-making company is to blame for a worker's death inside a cement mixer.
• In March, a 19-year-old was killed at one of Foley Products Company's locations in Florida.

It was a lethal accident that could have easily been prevented, the US Department of Labor announced Wednesday. Federal regulators blamed a Georgia-based concrete manufacturer for failing to comply with basic safety protocols and in the process contributing to the death of a teenage worker killed trying to maintain one of the company's cement mixers.

In March 2023, local media outlets reported that a man died at the scene of Foley Products Company's location outside Pensacola, Florida, after trying to clean one of its mixers, which turned on while he was inside of it. Investigators with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration soon got involved, WEAR News reported, noting at the time that the federal agency requires companies to follow strict guidelines meant to prevent any such incident.

OSHA's investigation, made public Wednesday, found more than a half-dozen serious violations of federal law, amounting to nearly $250,000 in proposed civil penalties. One of those violations, labeled "willful," directly contributed to the death of the unnamed employee, identified as being 19 years old: The company failed to cut the power to the cement mixer before he entered it.

The company, which sells pipes and precast concrete, also failed to properly train its employees on safety practices, OSHA said, and it did not have an attendant standing by in case something went wrong.

"Foley Products Company's failure to implement well-known safeguards cost the life of a worker just beginning their adulthood," Jose A. Gonzalez, director of OSHA's regional office in Mobile, Alabama, said in a statement. "This preventable tragedy should serve as a reminder of the importance of complying with safety and health standards, as required by law."

Foley Company Products, which has two weeks upon receipt to contest the findings, did not respond to a request for comment.