New London has fired a city employee, suspended two others and otherwise disciplined another two workers after an investigation of alleged safety violations at the city's transfer station.
Mayor Justin Daryl Justin Finizio's office said the city established safety protocols following the January 2014 death of Floyd Smeeton, a city resident who apparently fell into a running trash compactor. Employees also were retrained, and the public works department enacted a zero-tolerance policy for safety violations.
The fired employee was accused of violating city policies by bypassing a safety switch intended to prevent the trash compactor from running automatically about eleven months after Smeeton's death.
Finizio's office said no one was injured.
After Smeeton's death, the state Department of Labor cited New London for "willful" and "serious" safety violations and fined the city $10,800.
