Posted on March 28, 2011

Judge Upholds $7,000 Fine in Trampling at Wal-Mart

Steven Greenhouse, New York Times, March 25, 2011

An administrative law judge on Friday upheld a $7,000 fine against Wal-Mart Stores that the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration had imposed after a Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death at a Long Island store on Black Friday 2008.

Covette Rooney, the chief administrative law judge of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, upheld the fine in concluding that unruly crowds the day after Thanksgiving were a recognized hazard and that there were feasible means to control that hazard.

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OSHA fined Wal-Mart in response to the death of Jdimytai Damour, a 34-year-old temporary employee, who died from asphyxiation when a stampede of 2,000 shoppers burst through the doors before the store’s scheduled opening at 5 a.m., Nov. 28, 2008.

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[Editor’s Note: An earlier story about the Wal-Mart mob can be read here.]