In a tragic accident in Oregon, a man fell into an industrial-sized blender at a meat packing plant last Friday while cleaning it and died.
41-year old Hugo Avalos-Chanon, an employee of DCS Sanitation Management, died of blunt-force trauma and “chopping wounds” after becoming tangled up in the blender. Officials say there was an emergency stop button, but by the time another employee was able to push it, Avalos-Chanon was already dead. Firefighters had to dismantle the blender to remove his body.
Authorities say the man’s death was a tragic workplace accident, but are still conducting an investigation and are looking into why the machinery wasn’t shut down during cleaning; it is unclear at this time what caused the blender to start up while Avalos-Chanon was working on it.
‘‘It’s way too early to say,’’ OSHA spokesperson Melanie Mesaros said. ‘‘We’re just starting our investigation, which could take six months.’’