Dive Brief:
- Fertilizer manufacturer Two Rivers Terminal is facing a $394,200 fine for safety violations following the death of a truck driver who inhaled toxic fumes emanating from a tanker in June.
- The Washington State Department of Labor & Industries issued 11 citations in December related to the incident, noting a lack of hazardous signage, proper entry training and atmospheric monitoring. It also fined Two Rivers Terminal, which is appealing the case, for repeated safety violations.
- The family of Viktor Voloshin filed a wrongful death complaint against the company last month, claiming the driver had not received proper training nor instructions on how to clean out the tanker carrying emulsified sulfur — which created a gas that killed him, state inspectors say.
Dive Insight:
Two Rivers Terminal received two other state-issued fines in 2022 and 2023 for safety violations totaling $672,320, according to Washington’s labor department.
The Pasco-based fertilizer manufacturer is also considered part of the labor agency’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program, which requires heightened follow-up state inspections until worker safety conditions improve.
At the time of Voloshin’s death, Two Rivers Terminal was appealing both of its previous fines. It has received citations for 96 serious and 43 general violations over the past three years, according to the agency.
“This incident is heartbreaking and frustrating,” Craig Blackwood, assistant director for Washington’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, said in a statement. “Mr. Voloshin’s death was completely preventable … We hope this significant fine will motivate them to do the right thing to protect their workers.”
Surveillance footage from the June 7, 2024 incident shows Voloshin inserting a ladder into an opening at the top of a tanker truck at Two Rivers Terminal’s Pasco plant. He then entered the tanker trailer with a garden hose to clean it out before his next delivery of fertilizer.
Voloshin, a Ukrainian immigrant and father of 12, was later discovered unresponsive in the trailer, the Tri-City Herald reported. State inspectors say that fertilizer residue inside the tank created hydrogen sulfide gas that killed him. He was 56.
This is not the first time someone has died at a Two Rivers Terminal facility. In 2012, a worker was crushed to death after a wall crumbled under the weight of fertilizer bags at a location in Moses Lake, the Columbia Basin Herald reported. Three other workers have been sent to the hospital due to injury since 2010, according to a release.
In a separate instance, a worker fell off a railcar and suffered injuries after being exposed to hydrogen sulfide at the Moses Lake facility. Washington inspectors noted the worker was not wearing proper protection and that gas monitors were not issued until the day after the fall. Nevertheless, the worker survived.
“It’s hard to overstate how serious a risk they were taking with their workers’ lives,” Blackwood said in a statement dated Aug. 31, 2023.
Neither Two Rivers Terminal nor attorneys representing the Voloshin family could be reached for comment prior to publication.
