PVC pipe extruder Diamond Plastics Corp. has seen its second industrial fatality this year.
A worker died at Diamond Plastics' Macon, Ga., facility on Dec. 21 in an accident near a grinding machine. Bibb County Sheriff Deputies were called to the factory about 9 a.m. after a co-worker found 55-year-old John Brooks under heavy pipes at the grinder, which was not running. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
On March 26, 2016, a worker was killed in a Diamond Plastics plant in Lubbock, Texas. Raymundo Correa was trying to fix a hydraulic press in the early morning when co-workers found him trapped inside. They turned off the machine and removed 38-year-old Correa but emergency responders were unable to revive him.
In Macon, the sheriff's office said in a news release that foul play was not suspected but an autopsy will be conducted to determine cause of death. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration also is conducting an investigation.
The Macon facility was fined by OSHA in 2009 and 2012 for unguarded machinery. The serious violations led to fines and penalties of $9,900, according to OSHA records.
Diamond Plastics CEO and President John Britton said in a Dec. 22 phone interview that OSHA was at the accident scene in Macon and that it was unclear what happened in the incident. Subsequent attempts to reach Britton to comment on the Lubbock fatality were unsuccessful.
In the Lubbock fatal incident in March, Diamond Plastics was fined $37,413 by OSHA for three serious violations. The company contested the citations, according to OSHA records. Lawyers for Correa filed a petition for a temporary restraining order shortly after the accident to try to preserve the accident scene.
A previous fatality also occurred several years earlier at the Lubbock factory. On Nov. 18, 2007, Alcario Garcia died after an equipment malfunction and high pressure blast forced a pipe to hit the 63-year-old employee. That accident occurred at 3:30 p.m.
Diamond Plastics, established in 1982, extrudes PVC pipe for diverse markets in diameters up to 60 inches. It had estimated sales of $290 million in 2015, according to Plastics News data.
