Osler's Razor

This morning's Waco Tribune-Herald had an intriguing article with the ho-hum title of "Mayor's Company Hit With $6300 Fine."

At first, I skipped right over the article, and perhaps even rolled my eyes a little-- it must be some minor violation, only of note because a local politician was involved. But then I went back to it, and realize there was far more there.

The fine, assessed by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, was for a "spectacular acetylene gas explosion last summer that sent metal cannisters flying into the air." Two workers were severely burned and more than $2.3 million of damage resulted. OSHA had found that the company fined had failed to provide sprinklers which could have prevented the explosion, didn't mark trucks carrying explosives properly, and had conducted a substandard hazard analysis. Specifically, the citation (as described in the paper) said that the company exposed workers to "serious hazards that were likely to cause death or serious physical harm."

Seriously? A $6300 fine for creating a situation "likely to cause death or serious physical harm?" To me, that seems crazy in a world where minor drug dealers receive prison terms and recidivist thieves can go to prison for life. I realize that this was an administrative rather than a criminal response to the wrong, but that seems not to undermine my central point-- that corporate persons are treated much more leniently than actual persons who are (properly) vilified, impoverished, and imprisoned if they commit acts which are "likely to cause death or serious physical harm."