Investigations

On January 27, 2020, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, McClain and Co., Inc. (McClain), pleaded guilty to an information and Kenneth Mix pleaded guilty to a substitute information for making a false statement to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Mix was indicted on March 6, 2018, and via superseding indictment on September 5, 2018.

 

Mix, a former equipment supervisor, was responsible for the inspection and maintenance of McClain’s commercial motor vehicle fleet, including the under-bridge inspection (UBI) vehicles. The company provided UBI vehicles and operators to various State departments of transportation (DOT) and bridge inspection engineering firms under Federal-aid contracts, including multiple contracts with the Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT).

 

According to the informations, McClain and Mix knowingly made a false statement on OSHA annual inspection certificates about a UBI vehicle involved in a workplace fatality during a bridge inspection by an engineering firm working under a Federal aid contract with ConnDOT. Specifically, they stated that the vehicle had been examined by a third-party inspection firm on three separate dates—January 9, 2013; January 28, 2014; and January 27, 2015—and that the third party’s inspections met the requirements of the American National Standards Institute’s Standard 92.8. However, McClain officials knew the UBI vehicle had not been inspected by the third-party firm when they submitted the inspection certificates to OSHA.

 

DOT-OIG conducted this investigation with the Department of Labor OIG.