25,000 Pound Mold in Michigan Plant Causes Worker Death

A manufacturing plant employee in northern Macomb County in the United States was killed on Tuesday, November 10, when a 25,000-pound (11,340 kg) manufacturing mold in one of the interior plant walls fell on him, authorities said.

The employee, David Spano, 42, was found dead under the mold at the Bruce Township plant, Detroit Free Press reports, citing a news release from the Macomb County Sheriff's Office.

RELATED: 9 LESSONS LEARNED FROM SOME OF THE WORLD'S BIGGEST ENGINEERING DISASTERS

'A tragic accident'

Police officers responded to Romeo RIM Inc. on Van Dyke at approximately 9:55 am after they received a report of a man who had been injured by factory machinery, the police report says.

The officers arrived with the Bruce Township Fire Department to find Spano beneath one of the plant's molds. The death "appears to be a tragic accident," the Sherriff's Office said.

The Bruce Township plant provides custom injection molding services. On the company's website, a message said the facility had experienced zero safety incidents for one full year, from May 18 of this year. The website also explained that this was the second one-year milestone the plant had achieved in a period of just under three years.

"This is a great achievement for any company, but perhaps even greater for a manufacturing company," the website stated, at the same time as emphasizing its focus on team members' safety and well-being via coaching and training.

Improved safety regulations

As per the Detroit Free Press, a spokesperson for the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration said they had been made aware of the workplace fatality at Romeo Rim Inc. though it was too early to comment on this specific incident.

According to the United States Department of Labor agency OSHA, 5,250 workers died on the job in 2018, with 21 percent of these fatalities occurring in construction jobs.

Thanks to safety regulations and advances in workplace technologies, however, the agency says worker deaths "are down-on average, from about 38 worker deaths a day in 1970 to 14 a day in 2017."