MILESBURG — Newman Hill, a Milesburg-based trash hauler, was fined $16,131 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration after an employee was killed on the job in January.
OSHA, a U.S. government agency responsible for ensuring safe and healthy working conditions, cited Newman Hill for a violation after an investigation into the death of Nathen R. Kerstetter was completed by the U.S. Department of Labor’s workplace safety regulatory agency.
Kerstetter. a 38-year-old man from Milesburg, died on Wednesday, Jan. 17, after the driver of a garbage truck that Kerstetter was hanging off the back of backed the vehicle into a tree in Port Matilda, according to a public information release from police at the time.
According to the police, the driver was not aware of the tree he was backing into at the time. The Centre County deputy coroner pronounced Kerstetter dead at the scene after he suffered fatal injuries from the impact.
According to the OSHA citation, Newman Hill “did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to struck-by and caught between hazards when riding on the riding step while the waste collection vehicle was operating in reverse.”
Newman Hill has until Thursday, July 25, to provide documentation of abatement, or correction of the violation.
