Fine in Walmart Employee Fatality Case Upheld

A judge has upheld a fine against Wal-Mart Stores Inc issued by U.S. workplace safety regulators following a fatal stampede of frenzied holiday shoppers in 2008 at a Long Island store.

According to Reuters, the worlds largest retailer was fined when a 34-year-old security guard, Jdimytai Damour, was knocked to the ground and trampled to death in the early morning hours on the Friday after Thanksgiving as shoppers stormed the Wal-Mart store. (WCxKit)

The judge, presiding over an independent commission, upheld a May 2009 Occupational Safety and Health Administration citation of $7,000 against Wal-Mart, which the retailer fought in court in New York.

Wal-Mart’s “precautions to protect its employees were minimal and ineffective,” Judge Covette Rooney stated. A Wal-Mart spokesman indicated the company would likely appeal.

“We appreciate Judge Rooneys endorsement of our comprehensive and national crowd control plans in 2009, but we disagree with her ruling that Wal-Mart and the entire retail industry should have known of, and implemented, those plans in 2008 and earlier,” Wal-Mart spokesman Greg Rossiter remarked.

When the store opened its doors at 5 a.m. on the post-Thanksgiving Friday, known as the “Blitz Day” sale, “customers surged into the vestibule … knocking down two doors off their hinges,” the decision said. (WCxKit)

Some customers had been waiting in line since 5:30 p.m. the day prior.

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