Amputation from unguarded Concrete Hopper Brings $98K in Penalties

California workplace safety regulators fined a pair of companies $98,000 for a lack of safeguards on a concrete placer machine that resulted in a man losing his right leg while working on a highway project in the San Francisco Bay area.   A 35-year-old man, who was not identified in a Division of Occupational Safety and Health statement, was injured Nov. 13 while performing maintenance work on a concrete hopper near Highway 4 in Antioch. While standing on top of the hopper chipping away at the concrete inside, the man slipped, trapping his leg in a rotating steel auger inside the hopper. ...