OSHA fines landscaping company $9,000 after worker dies at HP Campus in Boise

A Boise landscaping company was fined $9,054 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for the accident on Boise’s Hewlett Packard campus that killed 65-year-old Antonio Barroso Garcia, of Nampa.

OSHA cited Trautman Lawn & Landscape Company on July 31 with a “serious” violation, setting an abatement deadline for Aug. 24. Garcia died May 23 at the former HP complex, between buildings six and seven, at 11311 Chinden Boulevard.

According to the citation, employees were operating a John Deere 5525 tractor with a 553 Loader that had an implement attached to collect grass clippings. The clipping weight was about 200-300 pounds and the implement, described by OSHA as “after-market fabricated metal bins” used to collect a dump grass clippings, was not designed or approved by the manufacturer.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Labor said Tuesday that the employer then requested a meeting and OSHA agreed to amend the citation language, but the penalty was not reduced. An informal settlement between OSHA and Trautman Lawn & Landscape Company was signed Aug. 27.

“The employer has corrected the cited hazards, agreed to only use equipment attachments approved by the manufacturer, and has paid the penalty in full,” according to the spokesman.

In May, the Boise Police Department said it believed the load fell from a high level and landed on Garcia, who was sitting in the driver’s seat of the tractor, killing him.

A coroner’s report determined Garcia’s cause of death was blunt force trauma of the head and neck.

The state of Idaho bought the campus last year, but Garcia was on site as a contracted landscaper.

On Tuesday, the Idaho Statesman left a message for the owners of Trautman Lawn & Landscape Company, but did not receive an immediate response.