A Clearfield pipe manufacturing company has paid $57,000 in safety violation fines after striking a deal with the state over the 1996 work-related deaths of two welders.
Last August, Herbert Brent Weyburn of Sunset and Dean Charles-worth of Clinton were overcome by argon gas while working on a 30-inch pipe at NAPTECH Inc.Jay Bagley, Utah Occupational Safety and Health Division administrator, said The Shaw Group, owners of NAPTECH since January, paid the fine, which was reduced from an initial $77,000 assessment after the company agreed to meet several conditions.
"We want to make the people there feel comfortable. We want to make the community feel comfortable," said P.J. Bourgeois, director of safety for The Shaw Group based in Baton Rouge, La.
A report issued by the Industrial Commission of Utah said NAPTECH officials failed "to identify, label, reclassify, control entry into and document elimination of the hazards in connection with confined space."