The number of workplace fatalities in Virginia is way up this year – 32 deaths as of Aug. 23 — compared to 31 for all of last year, according to Virginia’s Department of Labor (DOL). However, only one company, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. in Danville, has experienced multiple deaths, four in all, over the course of the past year, said Jennifer Rose, safety director for Virginia’s Occupational Safety and Health Compliance program (VOSH).
“We’re addressing it with them. It’s an ongoing discussion … The union is involved. They are just as concerned with these fatalities as we are,” Rose said.
In what a union official says is “very unusual,” the four deaths have occurred in separate accidents, an assessment verified by Goodyear.
