GROVE CITY, OH — Fabcon Precast LLC, a Delaware-based company with operations in Grove City, Ohio, pleaded guilty in federal court on Wednesday, February 26, to a criminal charge stemming from the 2020 death of a 20-year-old worker.
The company admitted to willfully violating a federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) safety standard after a malfunctioning pneumatic door fatally injured employee Zachary Ledbetter.
Ledbetter, who had been working as a batch operator at the Fabcon facility since January 2020, was killed on June 6, 2020, while trying to fix a jammed concrete mixer door. The mixer, which discharged concrete through a pneumatic door, had a safety valve designed to release pressure and make the door inoperable during maintenance. However, the handle to this valve had broken months earlier and was never replaced, leaving the door hazardous to operate.
On the day of the incident, Ledbetter attempted to manually free the jammed door when it suddenly closed on his head. He was rushed to a hospital but died five days later from his injuries.
By pleading guilty to a willful violation of OSHA regulations resulting in death — a federal class B misdemeanor — Fabcon became one of the few companies ever criminally charged under this narrow federal statute. The misdemeanor is the only criminal charge available under federal law for such workplace safety violations that result in a fatality.
“This case is a tragic reminder of the importance of maintaining workplace safety standards,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “When companies fail to do so, and that failure leads to a worker’s death, they will be held accountable.”
The Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General conducted the investigation. The case was prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney Adam Cullman of the Environmental Crimes Section and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio.
