
A Florida landscaping company faces a $16,108 fine from OSHA after a worker died in temperatures around 100 degrees last August.
Nakomis-based Olin Landscaping had a clean OSHA record for at least the five years before Saturday, Aug. 25. The Department of Labor says the heat index that afternoon got up between 97 and 103 degrees as Olin's workers tended to a house on Marigold Road in Venice.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration described the tragedy:
"An employee was using a lawn edger for approximately six hours and began to feel lightheaded. The employee was placed in the shade and given a sports beverage and water to drink. The employee began to feel better and went back to work where he soon passed out and unresponsive. The employee began to have 'seizure-like' activity and experienced multiple organ failure, severe dehydration, and hyperthermia."