Man killed in wood chipper
February 26, 2009 by Fred HosierPosted in: Bizarre Accident of the Week, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views
PDF With Spring just around the corner, it’s a good time to refresh safety training for outdoor workers. As this case shows, unsafe acts are too often fatal.
Henry Aguilar, a worker at General Materials in Edison, NJ, was killed when he was pulled into a large wood chipper.
Police say Aguilar climbed onto a conveyor belt that carries wood into the machine and got entangled in it, according to The Star Ledger.
Lt. Joseph Shannon said he doesn’t know why Aguilar climbed onto the belt.
Several others workers were nearby when the incident happened.
Aguilar had been employed at General Materials for more than a year.
The wood chipper pulverizes wood into mulch.
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Tags: conveyor, killed, wood chipper
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March 2nd, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Poor Henry, he must not have seen the movie, “Fargo.”
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Ouch!
March 2nd, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Oh my god, this goes along with the other article about employee responsibility. He was probably adequately trained not to climb onto the conveyor belt and he most definitely knew that the wood that traveled along that belt was sucked into a huge wood chipper…. While my heart goes out to his family, how many ways can we say “stupid”.
March 3rd, 2009 at 3:29 pm
I wouldn’t assume he was trained and it was probably a big rush to finish…
March 4th, 2009 at 9:50 am
I agree with the employee responsibility claim but I wonder if a better guarding system would have helped. We all have at least one “good” employee that goes that extra mile to get the job done. Is it worth a fatality? I vote for better guarding to prevent this from happening again.
April 13th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Responsibility for safety always falls onto the employer, and it should. Employers should emphasize that no work is worth unneccessary risk. Training records should be documented and guarding should be evaluated (as stated above), but what really concerns me is the lack of administrative controls: where was the manager/foreman? Why would fellow employees let him do such a dangerous act?
July 20th, 2009 at 1:06 am
A safe work enviroment is the responsibility of the employer, BUT safety is always the responsibility of the worker! You, and only you, can put your life in danger! Also, we need to be our brothers keepers.
Remember, no job is worth dying for!
Guard systems on equipment are great for preventing”foreseen” accidents, but never underestimate a humans ability to hurt him/herself in new and unusual ways. Common sense is the best guard against accidents.
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:53 am
Those industrial containers do move pretty fast. There should have been raised shields or something preventing people from climbing over. I’m sure the employee had training but just decided to grab for something ending in his own detriment.
May 25th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
I disagree George, you sometimes can train and train and still the employees try to pull one over on their employer. They pull the most stupid things when they think their supervisor can’t see. This guy knew or had to have know that this was a dangerous thing to do, climbing on a conveyor belt carrying wood into a chipper…. did this man not have two brain cells to rub together. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that this was a stupid thing to do. I guess now he can’t make any contributions to the gene pool.