Federal regulators have proposed fines of USD42,000 for nine safety violations in a supermarket warehouse where employee Gustavo Tapia, 22, was fatally crushed.

Workers were using an electrical pallet jack with a maximum lifting capacity of 4,000 lb. (1,800 kg) to push a broken forklift weighing 8,600 lb. (3,870 kg) up a ramp to the warehouse's roof at Moisha's Kosher Discount Supermarket Inc. in the New York borough of Brooklyn.

The forklift rolled back down the ramp and pinned Tapia, crushing him between a cement wall and the forklift. A same-day inspection by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found that Tapia's death was preventable.

OSHA inspectors found that the defective forklift had not been removed from service, as required, and that workers had not been trained to safely operate the forklift or the pallet jack.

"The pallet jack and forklift were not used and moved correctly, which resulted in a needless, avoidable loss of a worker's life," says Kay Gee, OSHA's area director for the New York boroughs of Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. "Tragically, Moisha's Kosher Discount Supermarket employees were not trained to use these machines safely and could not recognize their exposure to a deadly hazard."

OSHA's powered industrial truck standard prohibits pallet jacks and forklifts from lifting or moving objects heavier than their maximum lifting capacity and requires that employers teach workers how to operate machines properly and ensure that they understand the training.

OSHA cited serious violations of workplace safety standards including blocked exit aisles and passageways, missing exit signs, misuse of portable ladders and a battery charger, lack of quick drenching eyewash for employees who worked with corrosive chemicals and lack of a chemical hazard communication plan.