Bob’s Tire Company in New Bedford fined over $58,000 for health and safety violations

By Kiernan Dunlap
Posted Jul 22, 2020

NEW BEDFORD - Last month, Bob’s Tire Company in the near North End was cited by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration for four serious safety violations and one repeat and two serious health violations, resulting in proposed penalties of over $58,000.

The company was opened for two inspections, one safety and one health, on Feb. 6 of this year, according to Ted Fitzgerald, the regional director for public affairs for the U.S. Department of Labor, and was cited for the violations on June 22.

The safety inspection resulted in $35,624 in proposed penalties and the health inspection resulted in $22,554 in proposed penalties, according to Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald said Bob’s Tire Company participated in an informal conference with OSHA last week to discuss the citation and penalties and seek to resolve the matter, but the matter was not resolved and Bob’s Tire Company had until close of business on July 22 to settle or contest the citation and penalties.

Bob’s Tire Company said they had no comment about the OSHA citations and penalties.

The safety violations included multiple instances where employees were at risk of being struck by something; piles of shredded rubber being stacked in piles greater than 20 feet without protection to prevent collapse into the employee work area; a tractor being used to move trailers without an audible back-up alarm; employees walking and working in an area where dump trucks, tractor trailers, wheel loaders, and other heavy equipment was being operated without a traffic control plan; and wheel loaders being used with snow plow attachments that were not authorized by the manufacturer for pushing used tires around the yard where employees were walking and working.

Employees were also exposed to getting caught in a conveyor while they received used tires from the ground since it had a gap of greater than three inches between the roller and the wall, according to OSHA’s citations.

The health violations included an oxygen gas cylinder that was not secured and subject to being knocked over, a broken air dryer in the employee’s toilet facility with no other means to dry hands being provided, and directions of travel to the exits were not apparent in the sections of the second floor such as the tire painting and drying area, rack area, and welding area, and adjacent tire conveyor belt area.

Councilor-at-large Ian Abreu submitted the citation and penalties documents related to the health violations to the City Council last Thursday to be received and placed on file.

Abreu said on the phone Tuesday that he wanted the documents to be placed on file so constituents in abutting neighborhoods and city residents in general are made aware of what the federal findings on the property were and what the recommended course of action was to address those issues.

“Hopefully the management company will take heed to the recommendations and address those concerns that were set by federal laws and guidelines and I hope that we won’t have any issues going forward,” Abreu said.

This isn’t the first time City Council has called attention to Bob’s Tire Company, in February Councilor-at-large Brian Gomes and Ward 3 Councilor Hugh Dunn requested that the Committee on Public Safety and Neighborhoods meet with officials from local city departments to discuss local residents’ complaints of a foul odor and runoff water from the site where the shredding of tires is occurring.

The councilors also requested the committee look into the permissions the company had to shred tires at its location on Brook Street and asked that if the company had any code violations that the tire shredding be halted immediately.

According to Gomes, those motions are still in committee.

On June 11, Ward 5 Councilor Scott Lima, along with Abreu and Council President Joseph Lopes, also bought a motion before the City Council requesting that the Inspectional Services Commissioner, Environmental Stewardship Director, and Health Director appear before the Special Committee on Environmental Affairs, to provide a written report detailing the business name and location of all tire storage and tire recycling facilities within the city with a determination as to whether or not each tire facility is in compliance with the city’s planning and zoning regulations and environmental protocols. 

The motion was referred to the Special Committee on Environmental Affairs.

Gomes said on Wednesday that he brought safety and environmental concerns at the company to light after visiting the facility.

“I expected them to be in violation,” Gomes said in reaction to the OSHA violations. “There was no way that would be permitted in a residential neighborhood, that’s no surprise to me.”

Gomes said as soon as the committee is able, they are still going to call in Bob’s Tire Company because he doesn’t believe it belongs in a thickly settled residential area and said the committee will be looking into the company’s permitting and how they established themselves in that location to begin with.

Ward 2 Councilor Maria Giesta said she has received calls from her constituents about the property, which abuts her ward, and said she was glad that OSHA has gone after them and imposed these fines.

“We really have to keep an eye on Bob’s Tire Company and companies like it to make sure they don’t continue to abuse environmental laws and keep an eye out for our residents across the city, not just in Ward 3” Giesta said.

Giesta referenced a specific incident over the winter when the Department of Public Infrastructure and New Bedford Fire Department were at Bob’s Tire Company on what she said was a consistent basis to take care of a fire that was burning.

Gomes also referenced the fire saying that it resulted in “water and everything running down the streets it was just a total mess.”

OSHA did look into the fire, according to the records Abreu put on file with the City Council, and found that there was not sufficient evidence found for the company to be cited with respect to employee exposure to toxic combustion products from burning rubber by responding to a fire that occurred on Jan. 13.

However, OSHA did recognize the potential hazards associated with responding to fires and sent Bob’s Tire Company recommendations on voluntary protective measures they can take to protect their employees who respond to fires.

This is not Bob’s Tire Company’s first run-in with OSHA, in September 2004 the company was fined more than $45,000 after an investigation revealed 34 “serious violations”of workplace health and safety standards and in 2017 union organizers that had formed a picket line were handing out fliers detailing then-recent OSHA violations that totaled a proposed fine of $100,000.