Prime Time Cited for Safety Violations : Health: Cal/OSHA says workers had been exposed to exhaust fumes at the shuttle company’s Van Nuys headquarters.

Prime Time Airport Shuttle Inc. has been cited by Cal/OSHA for 14 violations of state worker safety laws, including exposing reservation and dispatch agents to engine exhaust fumes from shuttle vans at its Van Nuys warehouse-headquarters.

Prime Time, which transports about 50,000 travelers per month, primarily between their homes and Los Angeles and Orange county airports, paid $1,190 in fines after being cited five weeks ago. Cal/OSHA released documents on its investigation of the firm this week.

Cal/OSHA launched the three-day investigation in August after receiving a complaint that reservation and dispatch clerks were subjected to exhaust fumes while working in an office trailer in the Arminta Street warehouse where the firm’s passenger vans are repaired.

Cal/OSHA inspector Mark W. Pisani said in a report that when the vans were started in the warehouse, exhaust gases were drawn into the office trailer’s air-conditioning system. Employees were worried about being exposed to carbon monoxide in the fumes, he said.

Prime Time also was cited for not having an eyewash unit near a machine that uses corrosive chemicals, storing an oxygen cylinder near highly combustible waste oil and grease, and not properly ventilating its garage.

Cal/OSHA said the firm failed to post a list for employees of hazardous materials used in the garage and did not have documents showing that it trained mechanics to properly handle hazardous substances.

Prime Time, the second-largest shuttle service in the Los Angeles area, serves Los Angeles, Burbank and John Wayne airports with a fleet of crimson vans. It also takes passengers to and from the Amtrak train station in downtown Los Angeles and cruise-ship piers in Long Beach and San Pedro.

John E. Kindt, president of Prime Time, said Tuesday that the company has corrected the exhaust problem by routing fumes out of the building through flexible hoses connected to van tailpipes.

“We are a very caring management here. In fact, we know that the most important employees are our reservation agents and drivers,” Kindt said.

Kindt said the exhaust problem was “never really bad.” It began one night when a mechanic started a van with a rebuilt engine, spewing smoke through the warehouse and forcing its evacuation, he said.

He said the fumes presented no ongoing health threat to employees, about 30 of whom work in the Van Nuys building. The firm employs about 400 people overall.

Prime Time acted “a little bit slower . . . than I would have liked” in installing the exhaust hoses because it is moving to a new headquarters near Burbank Airport, Kindt said.

Pisani said two of the 14 citations the firm received were for repeat violations. Prime Time was cited last February for, among other things, not maintaining information sheets on dangerous chemicals used in its garage and not having documents showing that it trained mechanics to handle hazardous substances.