A 39-year-old worker was decapitated after he got caught in a ‘pinch-point’ while cleaning a piece of equipment at Tyson Foods chicken plant in Alabama.
Carlos Lynn from Eufaula, Alabama worked for Packers Sanitation Services Inc, which was contracted to clean equipment inside a Tyson Foods plant in Baker Hill.
Barbour County Coroner Chip Chapman said Lynn and another worker were cleaning the ‘chiller,’ which is used for cooling chickens, when the 39-year-old got caught in a ‘pinch point.’
A pinch point is any area where a part or whole person’s body can get caught between machinery that is either moving or stationary, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Unlike conventional household refrigerators, industrial chillers use conveyors and heavy machinery to cool the meat quickly.
The worker was pronounced dead at the scene and the cause of death was decapitation. Authorities did not say whether the equipment had been turned on when Lynn was cleaning it.
“We are devastated by the loss of our friend and team member, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time,” a PSSI spokesperson, Gina Swenson, said in a statement to Eufaula Tribune.
“We take an accident like this very seriously and we are working with local authorities to understand how it could have happened, given the strict safety protocols we have in place.”
Recent Facebook posts of Lynn include videos and photos of him enjoying meals in restaurants and having fun in the car with his girlfriend.
One internet user commented: “How terrible. There should be no area of a machine that is not behind guards when moving, and those guards should be electrically interlocked so the machine stops if opened. My sincerest condolences to his family.”
Another wrote: “Pretty horrific. May he rest in peace.”
A third added: “How do these accidents keep happening?? How awful for that man!! Why aren’t these machines equipped with a self flushing system if it’s so dangerous to clean by hand?”
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Replaced!