Midwest Manufacturing has been fined for an employee death.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has proposed fining a Menard Inc business USD6,300 following the death of a 54-year-old forklift operator.

The operator was moving trusses in a Valley warehouse of Midwest Manufacturing. OSHA inspectors say the operator placed the load in one location and was travelling to another area when the forklift veered towards a rack system. The forklift operator became pinned and suffered fatal injuries.

Following a fatality inspection, OSHA issued a citation for one serious safety violation for exposing workers to struck-by hazards in the facility. The Valley location has about 315 employees.

"This preventable tragedy demonstrates how quickly a routine workday can turn deadly," says Bonita Winingham, OSHA's area director in Omaha, Nebraska. "Employers must educate and train forklift operators and others working in warehouses to remove debris and other material from the path of forklifts. Struck-by hazards can come from above and below forklifts as well as from material storage racks and items being moved in the facility."

OSHA says 15% of all workplace fatalities it investigated over five years in Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska have involved workers being struck by vehicles or objects. A regional outreach initiative seeks to educate workers and their employers to prevent struck-by incidents, which can involve a vehicle such as a powered industrial truck striking an employee, or an employee being pinned between the vehicle and a stationary object.

Family-owned company Menard, doing business as Menards and Midwest Manufacturing, is based in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and has more than 280 home improvement stores in 14 states, primarily in the US mid-west and great plains regions.

OSHA is an operation of the US Department of Labor.