By Kari Bray and Scott North
LAKE STEVENS — Bradley Hogue’s friends raised their glasses in a toast at what would have been his 21st birthday party.
About 45 of them gathered on Feb. 28 at a Mexican restaurant. They called his parents on a video chat program so the Hogues could watch them sing “Happy Birthday.”
Bradley Hogue’s death in July 2014, at 19 years old, is the first workplace safety case in decades to be criminally prosecuted in Washington.
Deanna Hogue’s youngest son was an upbeat, adventurous young man who brought people together. He loved being in the woods or by the water. He was a good friend. He was a hard worker.
She figures that’s why he didn’t balk at climbing into the back of truck Number 302 on July 7, 2014. He was breaking up landscaping bark so it would feed properly from a conveyor belt to a pair of vertical rotating augers.
It was his second day at a new job. He had worked a total of maybe five hours before he was pulled into the augers and killed.
Pacific Topsoils, the King County company he was working for, now faces a criminal charge for allegedly violating safety regulations.
“I think Bradley’s death has really shattered so many people out there and we’re working harder to get the message of work safety out,” Deanna Hogue said.
It’s rare for a company to face criminal charges related to workplace safety, labor and industries spokeswoman Elaine Fischer said.
“Over the last 20 years, we’ve referred a handful of cases to prosecutors, but nothing’s been prosecuted,” she said.
Pacific Topsoils is charged with one count of violating a labor safety regulation resulting in death, a gross misdemeanor. The offense is punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and six months in jail. An arraignment is scheduled Monday in Seattle. The company previously was fined $199,000 by the state for 16 safety violations connected to Hogue’s death.
Getting to this point has been “a long waiting game,” Deanna Hogue said. “I tried to let the prosecutors do their job and stay very low-key, and toward the end they involved me with what was going on and how they were going about it.”
Bradley Hogue was part of a Pacific Topsoils crew assigned that day to deliver landscaping bark to a Duvall-area home. It was a summer job for the 2013 Lake Stevens High School graduate, who was studying at Everett Community College and hoped to transfer to the University of Washington. He liked math and was interested in mechanical engineering.
At 6:30 that morning, Bradley and the rest of the crew loaded up and headed to the job site.
The truck hauled bark in a taper-sided hopper with a conveyor belt running across the bottom. The belt carried bark toward vertical steel augers that fed a blower connected to a flexible hose for directing and spreading the bark. Workers used a remote control to operate the machinery.
“This particular truck, truck No. 302, was one of the oldest trucks in Pacific Topsoils’ fleet and was prone to tunneling, a condition in which material above the conveyor belt stopped moving toward the auger mechanism,” Timothy Garlock, a labor and industries compliance officer, wrote in court papers filed with the criminal charge.
The machine jammed about two minutes into the job. Hogue and another worker spent about a half hour with the device powered down to clear it.
Hogue reportedly climbed back into the truck while his coworkers went around the side of the house, out of sight. They used the remote to activate the blower, but it stopped working after a short time.
Hogue didn’t respond when his coworkers called to him. They dialed 911.
“Duvall police and fire responded and found Hogue entangled in the augers and rotating bars of the feeder mechanism. He was pronounced dead at the scene,” Garlock wrote.
Investigators learned that Pacific Topsoils officials knew workers regularly climbed into the cargo area of bark-blowing trucks without initiating a lockout procedure to make sure the machinery didn’t accidentally switch on, and “the only safety training they were given was the direction to stay at least one pitchfork length away from the feeder mechanism at the back of the truck.”
Other trucks in the fleet had warnings telling people to stay clear of moving machinery. Maintenance records for the truck Hogue was working on include a notation about its problem with tunneling and employee safety concerns.
Investigators concluded that Hogue’s death was a direct result of the company’s willful violation of state safety regulations.
Pacific Topsoils is “disappointed that L&I and the King County Prosecutor’s Office have chosen to file misdemeanor charges in connection with this tragedy,” according to a written statement from the company.
Since Bradley Hogue’s death, managers have worked with the state and outside consultants to establish written procedures and standardized training for employees, according to the statement.
“The death of Bradley Hogue was the result of a tragic and unfortunate accident,” the company said. “It has deeply affected everyone at Pacific Topsoils. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the Hogue family and all of Bradley’s friends.”
Deanna Hogue has learned a lot about workplace safety since she lost her son. Accidents could be prevented if safety was a daily priority and employees were better trained, she said.
With schools out for the summer and many young people heading to their first jobs, full of energy and determined to prove themselves, she reminds parents to talk with their kids.
“If I could do it all over again, I would sit down with Brad and ask him exactly what he’s doing and talk about work safety and let him know that no job is worth being hurt, losing a limb, being seriously injured or death,” she said. “There are options out there and it is OK to say no.”
Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com
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