TROY, Ala. – A 20-year-old sawmill worker was crushed and killed in a December 2022 incident that was the third deadly accident in as many years. 

An investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined that the sawmill worker was part of a six-member crew trying to clear a jammed roller at the Troy, Alabama, mill owned and operated by Rex Lumber LLC.

The worker, identified by news station WAKA 8 as Evan Kilpatrick, was crushed when stored energy caused the infeed unit to close on him.

According to OSHA, since 2020 Rex Lumber failed to follow federal workplace safety standards at three of its sawmills. In each case, workers died in these incidents. 

In this case, OSHA issued a willful citation for allowing workers to perform maintenance on equipment without controlling hazardous energy sources. The company also failed to review its energy control procedures regularly to ensure compliance and did not train employees on how to isolate stored energy in hydraulic accumulators.

The company has released a statement regarding the incident in which it said that it was devastated by the loss. The company also said that OSHA's press release lists the violations of a "completely unrelated company doing different things in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Virginia. Similar, but not us, and their additional violations should not be pubicly attributed to us." 

To read the complete statement, click here.

OSHA's press release stated that the incident follows other such incidents in 2021 and 2020 related to improper machine operations at two Rex Lumber sawmills in Florida. At the Graceville location in March 2021, an employee trying to fix a machine's faulty hydraulic valve suffered crushing injuries when they were caught in the machine's wheels and pulleys. In December 2020, a worker suffered an amputation injury — and died in a hospital days later — after their hand came in contact with the nip point of a conveyor's roller at the Bristol, Florida, location.

"Rex Lumber's failure to comply with well-known safety requirements led to the death of a worker and put others at serious risk of harm," said OSHA Area Office Director Jose Gonzalez in Mobile, Alabama. "Safety standards exist to protect workers from the hazards of moving machinery and when followed, they can save lives."

After its investigation in Troy, OSHA assessed the company with $184,385 in proposed penalties. Since 2013, the agency has cited the sawmill operator and its subsidiaries for 19 serious and other-than-serious violations.

Operating since 1926, Rex Lumber LLC has sawmills in Troy, Alabama; Bristol and Graceville, Florida; and Brookhaven, Mississippi. The company employs about 360 workers who harvest lumber from yellow pine.

The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

In 2018, Rex Lumber Co. announced plans to build the $110 million state-of-the-art softwood lumber manufacturing facility in Pike County, Alabama, creating more than 110 jobs.

Construction of the southern yellow pine lumber mill began in March of that year, and annual production at the facility was projected to be a minimum of 240 million board feet.