A properly trained staff that operates with a "safety first" approach to all day-to-day tasks on the golf course can be the difference between just another day at the office and a superintendent who has to answer for fines, lawsuits or worse.That's the story at an Ohio golf course, where the club and its management company are facing fines by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration and a lawsuit following the 2013 death of an assistant superintendent electrocuted while attempting to repair a damaged irrigation line.
"Not many superintendents are judged on their safety programs, but I promise you that if you have a major accident there are going to be a lot of questions from bosses, government agencies and insurance companies about safety training and what you've done," said Mickey McCord, a former superintendent who now specializes in safety training for golf course maintenance operations.
"Nobody wants something like this to happen. When it does, you have OSHA issues, a court case and a serious financial settlement."
Last month, Megan Krebs filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Fox Meadow Country Club near Medina and Fore Golf Partners, a Manassas, Virginia-based company that owns and/or operates 39 public and private facilities in 11 states, after her husband was killed in an on-course accident.
According to Montville Township Police records, 33-year-old Michael Krebs, an assistant superintendent at Fox Meadow and father of three, died July 10, 2013 when he was electrocuted while working in a trench on a damaged irrigation pipe near the club's No. 5 hole.
The lawsuit filed in Medina County Common Pleas Court claims his death was preventable and that he had "no experience with excavation equipment or repair of irrigation lines, was given no safety training to this type of work, was given no electrical testing equipment to determine if there was electrical power to the excavation site and he was required to work in close proximity to electrical lines without any safety precautions."
"It's a tragic situation, and it was preventable," said Krebs' attorney, Brian Kerns of the Columbus-based firm of Isaac, Wiles, Burkholder and Teetor.
According to police records, Krebs had been operating a backhoe around 1:15 p.m. on July 10 when he climbed off the machine and stepped down into a 9-foot hole to repair a ruptured irrigation line, according to police records. Co-workers later found his body, police said, in the water-filled trench and entangled in electrical wires.
Michael Miraglia, president of Fore Golf Partners, said he was unable to comment on the case.
"In general, OSHA says you have to train employees in any unsafe work conditions," McCord said.
"You want to be OSHA compliant. The bigger concern when protecting the club is not a $15,000 OSHA fine, but a $400,000 or $1 million lawsuit that claims someone was injured or worse because they were not trained properly. That's a serious problem for a club."
The OSHA investigation specifically cited Fore Golf Management for violations of three agency standards: 19260416 A01, 19260417 A, 19260651 C02 and resulted in three fines of $4,900 each.
The first two standards relate to working with electrical circuits and specifically reference the need to de-energize live electrical circuits an employee might come into contact with and tagging the equipment. The third standard relates to working in an excavated ditch and specifically is written in regard to providing an easy way in and out of the hole.
At a minimum, McCord said, safe practice for such a procedure, even with low-voltage electrical systems such as irrigation wiring, should include de-energizing the electrical source and releasing any stored electrical energy, as well as following the proper tag-out, lock-out procedure to ensure that it the system does not go back online before the task at hand is completed.
Training, according to OSHA documents, can be done in a classroom setting or on the job. Many standards are very specific, while others can be vague. It's only after a workplace accident occurs that OSHA officials show up and determine if an employer meets the standards for proper training and ensuring a safe work environment.
"There shouldn't have been any power on there," McCord said.
Standard 19260416 A01 states "No employer shall permit an employee to work in such proximity to any part of an electric power circuit that the employee could contact the electric power circuit in the course of work, unless the employee is protected against electric shock by deenergizing the circuit and grounding it or by guarding it effectively by insulation or other means."
Standard 19260417 reads "Controls that are to be deactivated during the course of work on energized or de-energized equipment or circuits shall be tagged."
Standard 19260651 C02 states "A stairway, ladder, ramp or other safe means of egress shall be located in trench excavations that are 4 feet (1.22 m) or more in depth so as to require no more than 25 feet (7.62 m) of lateral travel for employees."
In the absence of proper training or supervision, McCord says common sense should dictate to ensure personal safety.
"You don't typically have electricians working on a golf course. But if you're not comfortable working on electrical systems or you haven't been trained on it, don't do something you're not comfortable with," McCord said.
"I don't know if that would satisfy OSHA standards for compliance, but it would have saved the man's life, and that would have solved the whole problem."
The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, claiming that "the defendants' actions or inactions constituted willful, wanton, intentional, deliberate and malicious conduct and a conscious, reckless or flagrant disregard" for Krebs' safety. It is standard procedure in Ohio, Kerns said, not to publicize amounts sought in a lawsuit in excess of $25,000. Kerns did say that he has made a settlement offer that Fore Golf's insurers have rejected. The case is expected to go before a jury in the winter.
"People think you don't have to be concerned with low-voltage wiring," Kerns said. "They think you'll just get shocked. But it will kill you. It obviously killed him."