Company fined for ‘serious violations’ in Kumho Tire death

A Georgia construction company has been fined $11,900 after an investigation into the death of an employee who was helping work on the Kumho Tire plant in Macon.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited AutoRica LLC of LaGrange with two serious violations related to the death of 19-year-old Luis Ramirez. The report said AutoRica did not provide adequate training or proper safety equipment before the fall that killed the West Point resident.

Attempts to reach AutoRica for comment Thursday were unsuccessful.

Ramirez was “exposed to a (16-foot) fall hazard” while installing wiring for an electronic monorail system on Nov. 19, 2015, the report said. He died several weeks after the accident.

“Employees exposed to fall hazards had not been trained to properly ensure safe tie-off when using fall protection equipment,” the report said.

Construction of the south Bibb plant began in late 2014. The facility, which has the capacity to produce 4 million tires a year, began making test tires in late 2015.

The Macon site, at the Sofkee Industrial Park off Ga. 247, is the South Korea-based company’s first North American manufacturing plant.

This story was originally published August 11, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Company fined for ‘serious violations’ in Kumho Tire death."