Tyson Foods ordered to pay $500,000 and serve year on probation for worker death

Tyson Foods fined $500,000 after worker death

TEXARKANA, Ark. — Tyson Foods was sentenced in federal court Friday to pay a $500,000 fine and serve a year on probation for the death of a Texarkana worker overcome by poisonous fumes at a rendering plant.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration won the maximum fine for a willful violation of worker safety regulations. OSHA said maintenance worker Jason Kelley was overcome by hydrogen sulfide gas generated by decomposing poultry feathers. Five other people were injured.

The federal regulators said Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson didn’t take sufficient steps to reduce exposure to the gas after a March 2002 incident at the River Valley Animal Foods Plant in Texarkana. Tyson Foods pleaded guilty in January. It said then that the incident was an accident and that steps had been taken to prevent additional ones.