Messages From Mark's Family

The following article appeared in the Salt Lake City Tribune On March 4th 2004 UPS is fined, accused of altering evidence By Mike Gorrell The Salt Lake Tribune The Utah Occupational Safety & Health Administration has accused United Parcel Service of altering evidence in the electrocution of an employee last August and has fined the company $71,700 for the alleged transgression. UPS informed Utah OSHA on Monday that it was contesting citations issued by the agency on Jan. 27, and said in a subsequent news release that all post-accident actions taken by managers at the West Valley City facility were intended to prevent other employees working in similar situations from exposure to danger. No hearing date has been set on the UPS appeal to the Utah Labor Commission's adjudication division. Mark David Hills, 33, was electrocuted at 4:20 a.m. on Aug. 19 when he made contact with an electrically energized metal surface while trying to retrieve a package that had fallen to the floor from a conveyor belt. The conveyor ran down the middle of a 50-foot-long semitrailer that was backed up to the UPS building's loading dock and fed packages through a chute. Hills was one of a half-dozen employees who took packages from the conveyor and put them into UPS delivery trucks parked at open bays in the side of the trailer, known by the company as a "mobile distribution unit." Utah OSHA's Web site noted that a light fixture inside the trailer had failed four days earlier, damaging its internal electrical circuit conductors and unknowingly energizing the whole trailer because grounding equipment had been "ineffectively installed." In Utah OSHA's file on the accident, lead investigator Jerry Young said that after his first day of investigating the fatality, he instructed company officials to seal off the trailer and not to allow anything inside to be moved. Upon returning the next afternoon, however, Young said he was informed that UPS had brought in Heath Engineering that morning to inspect the trailer's grounding system. When he asked a UPS manager why his instructions to keep the trailer off-limits had not been followed, Young said the company official responded that he thought UPS had been authorized to bring in a third party to inspect the trailer and its electrical system. Young also said the suspect light fixture had been moved and that "a portion of a plastic wall anchor, alleged to be ultimately responsible for the electrocution, was removed from the accident scene. Not until the second day of the investigation was it decided by UPS to disclose this knowledge to me." Citing these actions and other alleged discrepancies in statements by UPS officials, Utah OSHA fined the company $70,000 for a "willful" violation by "deliberately . . . altering equipment, materials or other evidence" and another $1,700 for serious violations involving the electrical system. In its statement, UPS noted that Utah OSHA did not cite the company for the cause of the accident, which it blamed on an electrical junction box improperly installed by an independent contractor. Rather than tampering with evidence, UPS contended its managers reacted "decisively to protect our employees . . . UPS had a responsibility to do so. The company had 20 other similar units in operation in the Utah district . . . and could not take a chance on jeopardizing their safety by not moving quickly to ascertain the cause of the accident and isolate any problems." West Valley City police Capt. Craig Black said his agency responded to the accident, initially reported as a seizure, and did not believe the scene had been disturbed sufficiently to prohibit a criminal investigation, if one had been warranted. ******** Received February 13th, 2003 (Via Pam) ******** Dear Pam, Almost six months after Mark's death, the report has finally come in regarding his death. It has been a long wait, and a most tedious research project for the investigator in charge. The investigator found that UPS management personnel had "explicit knowledge of suspect equipment and equipment related to the accident, that the equipment had been tampered with and removed from the scene making the duplication of conditions impossible, and that UPS management personnel had acquired this knowledge within hours of the accident. Only after UPS acquired this knowledge did they report the accident to OSHA and whereupon they failed to disclose this key information. A portion of plastic wall anchor, alleged to be ultimately responsible for the electrocution, was removed from the accident scene. Not until the second day of the investigation was it decided by UPS to disclose this information to me." The report goes on to cite UPS for willfully and knowingly alter the scene, lie, cover up, and deny what happened the day Mark died. The company compromised the scene of the accident, called in another electric company and investigation company, and did all they could to prevent OSHA from doing its job to determine what happened to Mark. The (UPS) did a pretty good job of it, but the OSHA investigator did a good job too. We know that part of the reason for Mark's death was an ungrounded wired covered with black electrical tape, and several other things which were unsafe practices. Mark laid down on a platform to reach a box that had fallen from the conveyor belt. His upper body was at about a 45 degree angle. When he grabbed the box, he came in contact with this wire. He became the ground for the electricity, which of course killed him. The electricity apparently hit him in several places on his body, but police and OSHA think that the current passed through his heart and he went into cardiac arrest and died. OSHA fined UPS the maximum amount possible, $70,000, for "Willful" violations of the law which prohibit deliberately and knowingly removing materials and other evidence pertaining to the cause of a fatal accident. The many page volume cites time and again what UPS did to muddy the waters and prevent the investigation from being conducted. UPS was also fined $1700 because they had a wire passing through a hole in the wall which was not in a conduit and could cause an accident. The wire was also attached to a junction box improperly and was not grounded properly. Worse than that, this situation had been this way for at least 5 weeks prior to Mark's Death. In other words, an accident waiting to happen! It just so happened it was Mark that received the killing blow, but it could have been anyone that day or any other day. UPS ken about this situation and for whatever reason, did not change it. In a further note, OSHA wrote that the design and specifications for the unit Mark was working with had come from UPS corporate headquarters. Other units were built and wired in the same way. OSHA stated that corporate UPS could not claim ignorance of the violation because they had designed the unit and had sent the information to Salt Lake for bidding and building the unit. The cover-up goes high up and deep. The men involved in removing and changing the accident scene and equipment were upper management. Their names are listed on the citation. What happens now, we have not decided. The bottom line is Mark is dead, he was electrocuted, and UPS knew about the situation and did not prevent the accident. We receive some comfort in knowing OSHA did its job well. That doesn't alter the fact that Mark died a terrible, painful death that could have/should have been prevented by reasonable safety precautions. We are having a hard time dealing with that! The deceit on the part of UPS was unbelievable and the extent they went to was awful. Hence the use of the word "Willful" in the citation. We shall plan our next moves carefully. By the way, we did complete the small 24 page booklet of Mark, his life, his writings and pictures. I don't know how to get copies to you and to his friends. The booklet is about the size of a Christmas card, one-fourth of an 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper. If you want a copy please let us know because we wanted his friends on the Internet to have it. Thanks for helping us. I will always be glad to hear from any of Mark's friends. We hold you lovingly in our heart because you all were so important to him and so much a part of his life. He was lucky to have such good friends. Judith