The Justice Department said two executives of a railcar cleaning company were indicted by a grand jury in Omaha, Neb., on Thursday for worker safety violations that contributed to the deaths of two employees in 2015.
Nebraska Railcar Cleaning Services’ president and owner Stephen Michael Braithwaite and Adam Thomas Braithwaite, vice president and co-owner, were charged in a federal court with 22 counts of conspiracy, violating worker safety standards resulting in worker deaths, violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and submitting false documents to a federal agency. Adam Braithwaite also was charged with perjury.
Inspectors from the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2013 and 2014 found the company was not properly testing and disposing hazardous waste from railcars, namely highly flammable benzene.
On April 14, 2015, the contents of a railcar ignited while being cleaned by Nebraska Railcar Cleaning Services employees. Two employees were killed and a third injured.