Kentucky Fines Car Plastic Maker Montaplast $21K Over 2 Worker Deaths

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A Kentucky county’s largest private employer has been fined $21,000 following the deaths of two employees in unrelated accidents last October.

The State Journal obtained files through an open-records request that show the Kentucky Labor Cabinet’s Office of Occupational Safety and Health issued three maximum fines of $7,000 each to Montaplast in late March and early April. The company, which manufactures plastic parts for automobiles, received a two-part citation in the death of 35-year-old Angela Mitchell and another citation in the death of 23-year-old Benjamin Cermak.

Mitchell was killed after an overhead crane struck her in the head at the Frankfort plant, and Cermak was electrocuted days later.

Montaplast is contesting the citation in Mitchell’s case, but Montaplast Human Resources Director John Phillips called the resolution of Cermak’s case “fair.”