Firm’s Sentence for Fatal Accident Is to Make Video : Safety: Innovative penalty for a Wilmington cargo container firm is aimed at preventing more mishaps in a hazardous industry.

A year after one of its employees was killed in a cargo handling accident, a Wilmington container company has been ordered to produce a bilingual worker safety video in the hope it will help reduce injuries and deaths in one of the nation’s most dangerous industries.

The sentence, imposed this week in Los Angeles Municipal Court against Martin Container Services Inc., is similar to others issued around the country that emphasize preventive rather than punitive sanctions, according to federal safety officials and local prosecutors.

In other cases, they said, an East Coast shipyard was required to establish a comprehensive safety program, and a Los Angeles television producer convicted of wife beating was ordered to produce a documentary on domestic violence.

Federal and state safety officials--who welcome the bilingual educational tape--said the sentence comes at a time when they are focusing greater attention on improving safety in the containerized cargo hauling industry.

In the Wilmington case, Martin Container Services was placed on three years probation and ordered to produce the video for the container industry after the company pleaded no contest to three violations of the state Labor Code. The firm separately paid fines imposed by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

The violations stem from the death on April 28, 1989, of Adrian Sanchez Jacinto, 21, a welder from Long Beach who was crushed by a 5,000-pound container that fell from a forklift.

The accident, authorities said, occurred just before noon when Jacinto, his brother, Francisco, and foreman Antero Rodriguez were inspecting the bottom of the container at the company’s repair yard at 1402 E. Lomita Blvd. The 20-foot container, suspended eight feet off the ground, slipped off the forklift and fell, crushing Jacinto, authorities said.

Though agreeing soon after the incident to pay $3,000 in fines to OSHA, Martin Container Services has maintained that both Jacintos were violating the company’s written safety policy when the accident occurred. Specifically, company President Nick Martin has said the surviving brother, who operated the forklift, was not trained or authorized to do so.

Nevertheless, Martin said this week that he accepts the sentence imposed by Los Angeles Municipal Court Commissioner Barry Kohn.

“I am happy to do it,” said Martin. “I feel it is something that is very needed in the industry.”

Martin’s company, which has operated in Los Angeles Harbor for 15 years, is among the largest of the 30 container companies in the port, moving about 5,000 containers a month. Los Angeles Harbor handles more cargo containers than any other port in the nation--more than 2.1 million from July 1, 1989, to June 30 of this year.

The accident that killed Jacinto is Martin Container Services’ only fatal accident, officials said, and that fact, coupled with the need for increased safety in the industry, led to the court’s innovative order.

“A punitive sentence wasn’t going to help anyone. It wasn’t going to bring (Jacinto) back,” said Tracy Webb, the deputy Los Angeles city attorney who prosecuted the case. “What I wanted was to prevent something like that from ever happening again. And hopefully this will.”

The sentence calls for the company to produce the video by April 2 and provide no less than four hours each month of safety training to all its employees--including showing them the 30-minute video. If the video is not produced by the deadline, the company will face fines.

The idea for the video originated with Martin and his attorney, Patrick Larkin, during discussions with prosecutors.

“We felt that rather than simply penalizing Martin, why not work out something that benefits not only that company but the industry?” Larkin said.

They came up with the proposal for a video that must last at least 30 minutes and be produced in Spanish as well as English to accommodate the high percentage of dock workers who are from Central and South America, officials said.

“We wanted to be sure the material was presented in both languages because we are seeing a real problem with employers producing information that is not in the language of many of their employees,” said Marcia Gonzales, who supervises the city attorney’s special enforcement unit that prosecuted the Martin case.

The video, officials said, is expected to cost at least $60,000 to make and be good enough to use on local cable television and Southern California’s Spanish-language stations.

In addition, Martin is required to distribute the video to Southern California’s booming container industry, which over the years has seen numerous serious injuries and deaths.

Though statistics were not immediately available, Gabe Gillotti of OSHA said the cargo handling industry, including container companies, has been one of the targets of a national task force on injuries.

Last year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that cargo handling operations in 1985 and 1986 had a lost-workday injury rate six times greater than the national average for all workers. “Cargo handling operations are among the most hazardous activities in the nation’s workplaces,” the bureau concluded.

In addition, federal officials have noted the steady increase in the containerized cargo industry and are concerned that “a number of fatalities have occurred during the past few years” in companies moving the huge containers, according to a recent OSHA report.

The agency’s increased attention to the industry was evident last week when Stevedoring Services of America was charged with two violations of safety standards at the company’s yard in Long Beach. The OSHA violations could carry penalties totaling $8,700.

“This industry is one we are very concerned about,” said Jack Rhodes, district supervisor for federal OSHA.