OSHA fines Fayette County schools $9,000 in bus driver COVID-19 death investigation

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has levied $9,000 in fines against the Fayette County Schools Transportation Department after 19 employees tested positive for COVID-19 at one school bus garage last spring and one died.

A report in the OSHA database said an investigation opened April 10 on the Miles Point school bus garage found two violations resulting in two fines totaling $9,000.

The penalty was issued in October and the case is still considered open.

District spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall said Monday that “after the heartbreaking loss of bus driver Eugenia Weathers to COVID-19, Fayette County Public Schools reported her passing to state Office of Occupational Safety and Health. “

“Our intent by self-reporting was to invite an external review of our workplace measures to identify any areas of improvement needed,” said Deffendall. “ OSHA has complete its investigation and found no workplace violations, however the agency has fined Fayette County Public Schools for not reporting Ms. Weathers’ death within eight hours and not reporting the hospitalization of other employees within 72 hours.”

“We continue to mourn the loss of Ms. Weathers and are committed to doing everything we can to improve our processes and procedures,” she said.

Marjorie Arnold, chief of staff for the Kentucky Labor Cabinet, said in May that the Kentucky Labor Cabinet, Division of Occupational Safety and Health Compliance, opened an inspection involving Fayette County Schools and the Miles Point Bus Garage on April 10, after being informed of the death of one employee

Kentucky Labor Cabinet spokeswoman Cali E. Mills said Monday night that two reporting violations were issued to the Fayette County schools Dept. of Transportation on October 2. One was for late reporting of a work-related fatality and carries a proposed penalty of $5250. The other was issued for the late reporting of eight employee hospitalizations that carries a proposed penalty of $3750.

OSHA has jurisdiction over workplaces in the United States and enforces regulations with inspections, citations and legal actions.

As of May 8, there were 25 infected Fayette County residents who worked as school district transportation staff. Nineteen were at the Miles Point bus garage and six were at the Liberty Road school bus garage, according to Kevin Hall, a spokesman for the Lexington Fayette County Health Department.

Weathers died April 4 after contracting COVID-19 and several other transportation employees who were positive became seriously ill. One of them Sarah George who was hospitalized for a month, told the Herald-Leader in May that school district officials “knew something” about multiple transportation workers testing positive “but they didn’t let us know.”

District Chief Operating Officer Myron Thompson said in April that the health department contacted district officials each time a Fayette school employee tested positive for COVID-19. After completing their contact tracing and patient interviews, health officials identified any employee with an elevated risk of exposure.

After learning of an employee’s positive test on Monday, March 23, district officials notified the only other employee identified to have an elevated risk and sent the employee home to self-quarantine, Thompson said. The district shared information about the positive test widely with transportation employees and the public, according to Thompson.

The bus delivery of meals to students during the coronavirus shutdown was halted as soon as the district learned of a second transportation employee’s positive test results, he said.

This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 10:24 AM.