OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A federal appeals court has upheld dozens of safety violations at Dayton Tire's former Oklahoma City manufacturing plant but has reversed a commission's finding that they were willful.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., took the action Tuesday when it remanded the case back to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission to reassess its proposed penalty of almost $2 million.

The appeals court says the commission lacked substantial supporting evidence that Dayton's violations were willful. It set aside that portion of the commission's findings and ordered that the violations be reassessed.

Dayton Tire operated the plant between 1969 and 2006. In October 1993, a Dayton Tire employee died from injuries he sustained when a machine activated unexpectedly, prompting an OSHA investigation.