Wind turbine maker Siemens Power Generation will try to convince Oregon regulators today that adequate safety measures were in place when a 230-foot tower collapsed and crashed to the ground in a Sherman County wheat field last summer. Technician Chadd Mitchell, who was working high in the nacelle, the structure that houses the turbine's generating components, died in the Aug. 25 incident at the Klondike III wind farm. Another technician, William Trossen, was injured. A third employee, Dustin Ervin, sitting in a truck nearby, gunned the engine to avoid the falling wreckage and escaped unharmed, according to a state report. ...Siemens hasn't refuted the sequence of events that led to the collapse, but it objects to the division's findings of safety violations. "The employees demonstrated they could do the work they were trained to do safely," Siemens spokeswoman Melanie Forbrick said. "The actions that led to the incident were not actions that were related to the work they were performing." Siemens appealed the findings March 21.

A wind turbine manufacturer has appealed the $10,500 fine the state of Oregon issued for safety violations related to an Aug. 25, 2007, wind turbine tower collapse that killed one worker and injured another. The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division - Oregon OSHA - fined Germany-based Siemens Power Generation Feb. 26 after finding several safety violations related to the death and injury.

Siemens Power Generation Inc. has appealed a fine by Oregon's Occupational Safety and Health Division over a wind turbine tower collapse. In February, the Oregon agency fined the company more than $10,000 for safety violations that led to the collapse that killed one worker and injured another last year. Siemens says in its filing with the state that it was fully committed to the safety of its employees but disagreed with the agency's findings.

Siemens Power Generation Inc. has been fined more than $10,000 for safety violations in a wind turbine tower collapse that killed one worker and injured another. ...The investigation also found workers were not properly instructed and supervised in safe operations, the technicians each had less than two months' work experience and there was no supervisor on site. The agency says the workers were unaware of the potential for such a failure. Other safety violations included improper company procedures and failure to train employees in emergency rescue procedures.

Locked turbine blades and an unplugged circuit board may have been behind the sequence of events that buckled a wind turbine tower and sent a technician plunging to his death. Chadd Mitchell, 35, a technician for turbine manufacturer Siemens Power Generation, died Aug. 25 when a tower at the Klondike III wind farm in Sherman County collapsed. Mitchell was in the generator box, or nacelle, 231 feet from the ground when the incident occurred. ...About 2 p.m. the blades were set flat to the wind "in the full-power position," Winneguth said, which ran counter to safety procedures and proved fatal.

The collapse of a wind turbine tower last weekend in Eastern Oregon is being blamed on turbine blades turning at excessive speeds. The German company says there does not appear to be any structural problem or design issue. But Siemens has issued additional safety protocols to the workers in its wind turbine division.

Investigators at the Klondike III wind farm east of The Dalles believe the huge blades on a wind turbine that collapsed and killed a man were spinning too fast. ..."While investigation is not yet complete, based on the information we have so far, there are indications that what we call an ‘over speed operation' may have occurred after a sequence of procedures performed during the service inspection," said Siemens spokesperson Melanie Forbrick.

Investigators are just beginning to sort out how one of the hundreds of wind turbines that have been installed in Oregon collapsed this weekend, killing one worker and injuring another. "We don't know a lot more than we did yesterday," said Melanie Forbrick, spokeswoman for Siemens Power Generation, the German company that built the wind turbine... On Monday, Siemens suspended all inspection and maintenance work on its turbines worldwide. "We just wanted to take some precautionary measures," said Forbrick.

OSHA spokesman Kevin Weeks said the regulatory agency will look for possible flaws in the tower's engineering and try to determine whether safety and health rules were violated. ...Siemens, a German company, suspended inspection and maintenance work on its turbines worldwide Monday. "We just wanted to take some precautionary measures,"

A wind turbine on the not-yet-opened Klondike III wind farm east of the town of Wasco snapped in half Saturday, killing a maintenance worker at the top who fell to his death. A second worker inside the 242-foot-tall shaft was injured. The turbine broke about 4 p.m. Saturday a little more than halfway up the nearly hollow tube that holds the blades, said Geremy Shull, a Sherman County sheriff's deputy.