OSHA has been called in to investigate the death of a Minnesota man who was working at Progress Rail in McCook, Illinois, earlier in the week. According to reports by the police, 37-year-old Matt Barr was working at Progress Rail on Tuesday, March 10, when a part of a machine struck him.
The McCook Fire Department responded to the call along with paramedics. They transported Barr to Loyola Medical Center, but he later died from the injuries that he sustained in the accident.
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Barr was working at Progress Rail through Kato Engineering. He had worked for Kato since 2011. The company laid him off in 2016, but he was recalled less than a year later. While he was laid off, he took a construction job, which was different than what he had grown accustomed to.
The news story about Barr in 2017 said that his job at Kato was stacking rotors with laminates. The police reports did not say what equipment struck Barr at Progress Rail.
OSHA’s investigation could take six months to complete. The spokesperson did indicate that just because the investigation could take that long didn’t mean that it would. They are looking to see if the employer was following all safety regulations at the time of the accident. If they were not, they would receive citations based on their findings.
When the press reached out for a statement from Progress Rail and Kato Engineering, neither company provide a comment on the accident.