A federal workplace safety investigation prompted by the death of an H-E-B employee after a forklift accident in April led regulators to cite the grocery chain for 10 violations and propose $80,388 in fines, records show.
Seven of the 10 citations issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration were later dropped in an informal settlement, leaving three violations and $49,650 in current penalties. The remaining citations involve deficiencies in forklift training and material-handling safety.
Austin Flores, 27, who worked at the company’s Perishable Distribution Center on the Northeast Side, was operating a pallet jack on April 4 when he was broadsided by a forklift driven by another employee, according to a lawsuit his family filed against H-E-B. Flores jumped from the jack to avoid being crushed against some pallets and sustained a fractured right ankle and other injuries…