Washington Lumber Company Fined After Worker Injured

State regulators have fined a south-central Washington lumber company more than $244,000 for dozens of safety and health violations after a worker got caught in machinery and was seriously hurt.

The SDS Lumber Co. of Bingen has appealed the citations from the Washington Department of Labor and Industries.

The agency said Tuesday that a lack of training and proper safety procedures left a plywood plant worker with severe injuries last March when his arms became entangled in machinery while trying to clear a jam.

L and I says its investigation found that supervisors were aware that workers routinely bypassed machinery safety guards to try and clear jams while machinery was still in motion. SDS President Jason Spadaro says the company “strongly disagrees” with that conclusion.

Company lawyer Aaron Owada says the citation is not based on an impartial investigation, nor are the citations supported by the evidence.

SDS says it has cooperated fully with the investigation. Labor and Industries says many of the violations were corrected during the inspections.