LAW SUIT FILED AGAINST SPENCER VENEER OVER SCALPING

(09/16/2004)

A lawsuit has been filed in Roane Circuit Court against Spencer Veneer by Melissa May, a Roane County woman whose scalp was torn from her head by a log slicer. It says May's hair became entangled in an unguarded shaft on the slicer in 2002. Employees tried to activate the emergency shut-off switch, which failed to work. The suit contends repairs were made to the machine before OSHA investigators arrived. A family spokesperson told The Herald at the time of the accident, "She was scalped after her hair was caught in the machine, taking her right ear and removing her scalp down her neck and back." She had been an employee at the plant for less than a year. May is the daughter of former Calhoun residents, the late Dolan Whiting and Linda Goodrich Whiting. She has a daughter who is now about twelve years old. Spencer Veneer has been fined for various hazards by OSHA, more recently in May for $123,000. They were issued 34 violations in 2001 and fined $57,000, in addition to a $5000 fine when a man was killed falling from a scaffold. The company appealed some of the violations and the fines were reduced. See The Times Record for more on this story ... http://www.thetimesrecord.net/

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