SYLMAR : Employer Sentenced in Worker’s Death
The owner of a Sylmar ironworks shop was ordered to perform 400 hours of community service for violating workplace safety laws in the death of an employee who was decapitated when a tire exploded, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office said Friday.
Juvenal Mena, 53, of Pacoima pleaded no contest to violating two state safety laws that call for an employer to have a safety training program and require that a tire be removed from a rim before any repairs are made, City Atty. James K. Hahn said in statement.
Los Angeles Municipal Court Commissioner John Rafferty on Wednesday also sentenced Mena to three years probation.
Pacoima resident Ramon Carranza, 45, who worked as a welder at Mena’s Wrought Iron Works, 12430 San Fernando Road, was killed Aug. 12 while welding a cracked wheel rim with an inflated tire still attached.
When the tire exploded, the rim flew off and hit Carranza.
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