Pa. duct manufacturer fined $1M over ignored warnings, severe employee injuries

A company whose ventilation products whisk air through the Chrysler Building and Yankee Stadium has been fined more than $1 million and placed in a violator program for ignoring what federal regulators say were repeated warnings about dangerous machinery.

Employees at Montgomeryville-based Lloyd Industries Inc. have suffered more than three dozen serious injuries from exposed moving parts over the last 15 years, including crushed and lost fingers, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Monday.

The agency's latest action — including an $822,000 fine and placing Lloyd Industries in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program with increased inspections — came after part of a machine lacking required safeguards crushed an employee's hand last summer, leading to the amputation of three fingers.

Lloyd Industries declined to comment.

The company has 15 business days to comply with the sanctions, request an informal conference with OSHA's area director or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Regulators say the company has shown a pattern of defiance toward safety standards in which it accepts penalties and promises to correct hazardous conditions, only to commit the same violations again.

OSHA says inspectors armed with a warrant were once forced to summon federal marshals to gain entrance to the plant when Lloyd refused to admit them.

Lloyd Industries employs about 70 people at its Montgomeryville site, about 20 miles north of downtown Philadelphia, and 25 workers at a facility in Orange Park, Florida.