OSHA levies $26K fine against Brookshire’s in connection with March warehouse death; company to contest citations

TYLER, TEXAS (KLTV) - A federal agency has set a $26,520 fine against a Tyler company in connection with a warehouse death.

Kaspar Holland, 22, was killed in an industrial accident at the Brookshire’s Grocery Company’s warehouse location at the corner of Old Jacksonville Highway and Loop 323 on March 16.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued the fine on June 19 and cited two violations.

Brookshire’s has a deadline in which they can contest the fine.

Wednesday afternoon, the company announced it would contest the citations in a statement.

“The safety of our employees and customers is of upmost importance to Brookshire Grocery Company. We were deeply saddened by the loss of a valued employee following an incident in a Tyler warehouse in March. BGC has extensive preventative processes and procedures in place to ensure the safety of our employees and has safely operated our warehouse facilities for close to 70 years. This is the only occurrence of an on-the-job injury of this severity in the BGC warehouses in all of our years of operation. We notified and fully cooperated with the authorities in the investigation of this incident. The investigation by the Tyler Police found that the employee in question was not following Company policies and procedures, which resulted in the incident. We are contesting the two OSHA citations and will provide evidence supporting our request to withdraw or modify the citations. Brookshire Grocery Company will continue our commitment to providing a safe work environment for our warehouse employees as evidenced by the seven decades of operations without an accident of this nature.”

Previous report: OSHA investigating death of Brookshire’s warehouse employee

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