Worker killed after being caught inside palletizer hoist area

A machine operator was killed while operating a palletizing machine at an ice cream manufacturing facility. The palletizer was designed to place and stack products from an assembly line onto pallets for shipping. The incident occurred after the victim had finished working a full second shift and was in the midst of four hours of volunteered overtime. The victim entered the machine’s hoist area to position a pallet when the hoist unexpectedly began to rise. The machine was operating in automatic mode, which allowed the palletizer to continuously cycle. It was not […]