Man Dies After Being Sucked Into Machine

A worker needs to use a piece of machinery. He is unaware that the device is not operating properly and is being worked on at that moment by maintenance employees he cannot see.

Since the machine has not been locked out, as it should have been, the worker is able to flick a switch and bring the machine to life. When that happens, one of two workers falls into the operating plastic chipper and dies.

Unfortunately, this workplace death isn’t hypothetical. It occurred a couple of months ago at Rotonics Manufacturing at Bartow Municipal Airport in Florida.

This type of situation plays out all too often. People who work on machinery that can be re-activated with the flick of a switch may be pressed for time and think it won’t hurt to take a minute to fix a problem without locking out all energy sources. A lot can happen in a minute, or even in a second. Share this story with your workers.