KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) – Federal safety officials have reduced the fine they imposed on a construction company over the death of an employee killed in an accident near the Kearney sewage plant. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration reduced the penalty to $12,740 from the original $19,600.
Seventy-five-year-old William Aschoff, of Niobrara, died in the Sept. 30 accident. His piece of heavy equipment went into a sandpit full of water, and he drowned.
Commercial Construction, of Lincoln, has paid the penalty and corrected all the violations OSHA found.
Officials had said the company failed to provide lifejackets or work vests for employees working over or around water and didn’t have needed rescue equipment stationed nearby.