Just two days after an employee was killed at a sand mine in Crawford County, another worker was found dead, this time at Diamond Plastics Corporation in Macon. Madison Cavalchire was on the scene Wednesday morning and has more on what may have caused the employee's death.
Around 9:00 a.m. Wednesday, the Bibb County Sheriff's Office received a call from Diamond Plastics on Industrial Highway in Macon.
"It was in reference to a worker that had fell down in some type, they call it, a crusher machine," Bibb County Lieutenant Randy Gonzalez said.
That employee was 55-year-old John Brooks from Wilkinson County. Lieutenant Gonzalez says the machine wasn't on when Brooks fell in.
"It appears that some heavy plastic piping also fell on top of him, and that's where he was found," Gonzalez said.
Found dead, Gonzalez says, by a fellow employee.
"We will do an investigation on this, just to be sure there is no foul play involved, but at this time there doesn't appear to be any," Gonzalez said.
Mike D'Aquino, with the U.S. Department of Labor, says over the last ten years, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, known as OSHA, has investigated two separate safety complaints at the Diamond Plastics Corporation in Macon. He says the first complaint was filed in 2009, and the second in 2012. He says both of those complaints resulted in multiple serious violation citations by OSHA.
D'Aquino says Diamond Plastics Corporation paid almost $10,000 in penalties, as a result of the investigations in 2009 and 2012.
Online records show OSHA cited the company for exposing workers to possible amputations from unguarded machinery.
D'Aquino says OSHA has opened an investigation regarding the death of John Brooks, but no additional information is available yet.
13WMAZ attempted to speak with someone inside the Diamond Plastics building in Macon, but they declined to comment.