Warehouseman Jumps Into Shredder-Compactor

A warehouseman at a store was assigned the job of taking the garbage from the store and putting it into a shredder – compactor.

After loading the boxes into the shredder he jumped on top of them to push them down, and his legs were caught in the machine. A co-worker who was present when he became caught did not know how to operate the machine and there were no instructions posted, nor was there an emergency stop button in sight so he simply pressed every button on the control panel until the machine finally stopped.

The warehouseman was eventually freed by three doctors who amputated his legs below the knees. The victim died from loss of blood, shock and cardiac arrest.

The coroner wrote that the sole cause of this fatality was the “victim’s incredible folly”, but no matter how senseless an act may seem, one of the causes is often a lack of proper safety training and communication. If you have a shredder compactor at your worksite, have you ever had a safety talk on it? Maybe it’s time you did!