A woman’s death from being crushed inside a redesigned plastics molding machine is behind a push in Indiana to automatically fine businesses $100,000 per death for workplace fatalities resulting from willful workplace safety violations.

Indiana is believed to be the first state to impose such mandatory penalties in these types of tragic situations if the legislation passes.

Rep. Martin Carbaugh, R-Fort Wayne, introduced H.B. 1341 on Jan. 14 to amend the Indiana code on workplace safety, which stipulates fines of $7,000 to $70,000 for safety violations, to add the additional fine for a worker death caused by a company’s failure to comply with safety standards and features. The fine would be automatic if the employer is issued a willful violation and an employee dies, per the bill.

The legislation, which has gained the support of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, is now in the Indiana House of Representatives’ Employment, Labor and Pensions committee, according to the state’s legislative website. It reads, “If an employer willfully violates any standard, rule, order, or this chapter and the violation results in the death of an employee, the commissioner shall assess a civil penalty of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) for each employee whose death results from the violation.”

That’s what happened to 23-year-old Shacarra Hogue on Jan. 7, 2018, according to the lawmaker.

Ms. Hogue of Fort Wayne, Indiana, was killed while working inside a plastic molding machine that was never intended for a worker to enter, as Rep. Carbaugh relayed to Business Insurance. Her employer, Fort Wayne Plastics, was found by the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration to have intentionally removed parts of the protective features and instructed her to perform duties inside the machine, Rep. Carbaugh said.

IOSHA fined the company $6,300, but Rep. Carbaugh said the fine was not enough to dissuade companies from acting carelessly when it comes to preventable deaths. A spokesman in Rep. Carbaugh’s office said legislators are unaware of any state that imposes such an automatic fine for a fatal, willful violation.

“I want to put a big enough penalty in place that if (employers) even think about being careless, if they don’t care about the human life maybe they will care about the pocketbook,” said Rep. Carbaugh. “For those who would skirt safety for profit or otherwise, I want there to be a big financial penalty over their heads if they are making those decisions.”

Michael Ripley, Indianapolis-based vice president of health care policy and employment law for the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, said supporting such a measure is not something the chamber would usually do, but the organization is supporting the legislation.

“When you look at the genesis behind the bill and you understand the background, it is pretty indefensible to support that company,” he said. “It’s one thing where you have an accident and make a mistake, but (the employer) made a decision that ended up causing this woman’s death. There really isn’t any rationale to justify what went on there, and it never should have happened.”

Officials with Fort Wayne Plastics could not be reached for comment and it is not clear why the machinery was altered, nor why Ms. Hogue had entered the machine. A spokesperson with IOSHA could also not be reached for comment.

Stephanie Wells, vice president of workforce development policy and administration for the Indiana Manufacturers Association in Indianapolis, said she is now researching how Ms. Hogue’s death resulted in such a small fine.

“In this particular case that precipitated the bill, we think there was an enforcement issue” for IOSHA, she said, adding that the association is thus far “neutral” on the bill.

Meanwhile, workplace safety experts say events as the one that precipitated the bill in Indiana are rare.

“Willful misconduct requires showing intent, such as removing a safety device from a machine or intentionally not shoring up a trench,” said Mark Walls, Chicago-based vice president of communication and strategic analysis for Safety National, in an email to Business Insurance. Mr. Walls, who is also part of the company’s government affairs team, added that “very few workplace fatalities are caused by intentionally ignoring safety rules.”

Both federal and state OSHA programs have fines for willfully violating safety rules and Indiana’s proposal is just increasing the fine in that state for fatalities found to be resulting from willful violations, Mr. Walls said. He is unaware of other states with similar automatic fines for willful violations.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration sets its maximum fine for willful violations at $132,598, noted Rixio Medina, Katy, Texas-based president of the American Society of Safety Professionals.

“My observation is no fine should be lower than the federal standard,” he said of the Indiana proposal.

The Indiana proposal stipulates the fine would be $100,000 per death — incidents with more than one death would result in a higher fine, Mr. Medina noted.

But under OSHA, willful violations are not automatically applied in all instances where there is a fatality. For example, OSHA proposed $56,910 in penalties earlier this month against a Missouri roofing contractor after an employee suffered fatal fall injuries when a roof truss collapsed. The agency cited the company for one repeat and five serious violations, according to an OSHA statement on Jan. 8.

Also in January, OSHA cited a Maryland-based contractor for exposing workers to electrical hazards after an employee was fatally electrocuted while installing solar panels on a building, but the agency proposed $39,836 in fines for four serious violations, according to an OSHA statement on Jan. 9.