The Gene Hobbs Tragedy: the gospel according to Morley

Ron Hayes has made his life’s work helping families deal with the OSHA mishandling of cases involving their loved ones, since loosing his son, Patrick, who was killed after a column of grain collapsed on him while working in a grain bin at his job in 1993. Over the years, Hayes has came to learn and understand a lot of things about the agency. He has worked side by side with them when they have allowed, trying to improve the system in regards to how they handle fatalities and the families of the victims. When it comes to state level OSHA, he will quickly tell you it’s a mixed bag. In his eyes, states like Tennessee have done a great job of making sure their program is equal or better than the federal program, which is required in order for a state to run its own program. According to Hayes, Kentucky, however, and its version, OSH, has consistently fell short when it comes to meeting the federal status quo. OSH investigators have been notorious for taking the side of companies in work-related injuries and fatalities, botching investigations and sometimes even breaking the law, and Hayes has no shortage of case files to support his conclusion.
The problem, he says, is that once an OSH investigator issues their final report and conclusion, it becomes the gospel. When Morley issued his findings that Meade County was in no way at fault, and after returning from lunch, Gene Hobbs had walked behind the moving truck with its back up alarm sounding after it was cleared to back up for loading, it became written in stone that he was the only person at fault. As Hayes points out, dead men have no rights in a case like this once KYOSH issues its verdict.