An ambulance manufacturer led by Republican House candidate John Braun received another fine this week, adding to the scrutiny of his business safety record in one of the most competitive races for control of Congress.
The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries on Monday issued a nearly $13,000 fine against Braun’s company, Braun Northwest in Chehalis, for not protecting employees using a heavy duty Accurshear from a shear point hazard, when machine parts move close enough to each other that a person’s body parts can become caught.
One employee using the cutting machine, which had an inadequate guard, had two fingertips amputated in June, according to public records obtained by The Washington Post. The details of the incident that led to the fine have not previously been reported.
Braun, who is also minority leader of the state Senate, said the company will appeal the citation.
“We take every workplace accident seriously, but we strongly disagree with L&I’s conclusions and the resulting fine,” Braun said in a statement.
The Post previously reported that Braun’s company, which manufactures emergency vehicles for government agencies, received three state citations for child labor violations in 2025 involving two teenagers hired through an apprenticeship program. The company’s safety practices also concerned some workers, according to interviews with seven former employees.
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D), Braun’s opponent, has criticized his company’s safety record, including in campaign commercials.
“He says his business takes safety seriously. The record says otherwise,” Gluesenkamp Perez posted on X after the Seattle Times first reported the fine.
The state workplace regulator inspected the company in response to a tip, according to the inspection summary. Through interviews, the agency confirmed “that the guard on the shear press did not prevent the employee’s hand from entering the nip/shear point area, resulting in two fingertip avulsion injuries,” the records say.
The injured employee said his hands slipped under the guard, which he said happens about 5 percent of the time he uses the machine, according to records. He also said his two middle fingers got caught but the injury required no stitches and there was no bone loss. “Just the tips and part of the nail was removed,” records say.
Regulators said the machine hazard existed for at least 11 years and exposure to “hazards of this nature” can lead to serious injuries involving permanent disability, death or chronic irreversible illness, according to the records. The violation was corrected during the inspection.
Braun criticized the state agency’s handling of the investigation and questioned officials’ motivations.
“It is also deeply troubling that equipment L&I has inspected for years is now being questioned in this manner,” Braun said in a statement. “That raises legitimate concerns about the consistency of regulatory enforcement and, particularly given the timing, the possibility that a state agency is being weaponized for political purposes.”
The state’s Department of Labor and Industries did not respond to request for comment on Braun’s claim.
The summary of the inspection called the company’s safety practices into question, asserting that employees were putting their hands under the guard even though they met monthly to discuss safety rules. The summary also said the safety manager responsible for walking around the warehouse daily and correcting issues failed to notice the unguarded part of the shear machine.
Other records from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration show that Braun has reported at least 27 work-related injuries and illnesses between 2023 and 2025, including lacerations, body strains and an accidental death, but the company did not receive citations for the vast majority of those cases. The injuries also include a 17-year-old’s finger fracture, which led to a child labor violation for allowing a minor to operate a drill press without a barrier guard. The finger amputation is cited as repeat violation due to the violations associated with the teenager’s injury, according to citation records.
The teenager, Patience Dour, now 19, has said her injury was minor and has been blown out of proportion. She still works at the company after she was hired full-time after her apprenticeship ended.
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