Worker Crushed Under Elevator at Tyson Foods

27 Jul 2007

Robards, KY - 9/1/99 - A Tyson worker was crushed under an elevator Monday night. The incident happened in the poultry giant's processing complex in Robards, Kentucky where two workers died in July, 1999.

Early reports allege that on Monday night, Keith Welsh was cleaning the elevator shaft when a co-worker activated the elevator, seriously injuring Mr. Welsh. OSHA law requires that during any cleaning operation, all machinery must be locked-out to prevent serious injury to workers.

Monday night's incident comes a month after two workers, James Dame, Jr. and Mike Hallum fell into an open pit of decomposing chicken parts and by-products and suffocated from the methane gas emitted by the parts at the protein plant of Tyson's Robards, Kentucky complex.

According to press reports, more Tyson plants are named on the OSHA High Hazard Targeted Inspection List than any other poultry company.

When Kentucky OSHA inspectors arrived at the Robards complex to investigate the July deaths, they were turned away by Tyson mangers demanding a search warrant. Safety officials were subsequently admitted to the facility under a court order. The complex had not been inspected by state or federal Occupational Safety and Health agencies since January, 1998, but state officials are now conducting an on-going investigation of the plants.