Report: Bumble Bee tuna plant worker 'cooked in oven

[Baitball Blogger]

A worker at a Bumble Bee tuna-canning plant in California died in an industrial accident Thursday after being cooked in an oven, the Contra Costa Times reported Friday.

Jose Melena, 62, "was fatally injured when he was cooked in an oven," a California Occupational Safety and Health spokeswoman told the newspaper. It's unclear how Melena ended up inside the "steamer machine.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-bumble-bee-tuna-worker-dies-cooked-20121013,0,7008588.story

[TwilightGardener]

1. Ugh. Awful. I hope they investigate, and not just assume it's an accident, though.

[Baitball Blogger]

3. I wonder if the guy was cleaning the oven and got locked in.

If so, why were there no fail safe systems in place?

[TwilightGardener]

8. That's the most plausible theory, but it's also possible he fell unconscious in there

(fumes?), or there's possibly foul play. Because it seems hard to believe something like this could happen nowadays.

[Mariana]

11. Sometimes workers deliberately defeat those systems

because they can be inconvenient and time consuming to follow - especially when they're under pressure by management to do more more more. Yes, I speak from experience. Anyway, we don't know how or why it happened.

[Teamster Jeff]

5. OSHA is better staffed since Obama became President

They have hired more inspectors and they are inspecting and issuing citations at a record pace. One problem is the amounts that they are able to fine unsafe employers is to low. These limits are set by congress and haven't been raised since 1990.

[Berserker]

6. To Low?

I work construction and for just one infraction like your ladder not being 3 feet over gutter line the fine starts at $7000.00 is that to low for you?

[TwilightGardener]

7. Sounds about right, actually.

[Teamster Jeff]

9. $7000 is the Max fine

unless it's a willful violation then it's $70,000. The point is that $7000 is not enough incentive for large companies to comply fully with OSHA regulations.

I can see how from the perspective of an independent contractor or small business $7000 is a large fine.

[Bucky]

2. Straight out of The Jungle

[Odin2005]

4. What a horrible way to go!

OMG!

[tantric_nun]

10. RIP and love live

live foods! (No need for canning! :clap

[jsr]

12. Not long ago, workers baked alive in U.K. bread factory:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1443939.stm

A bakery company and three company directors have been fined £373,000 after two workers died inside a bread oven.

The men were carrying out maintenance work when they became trapped inside the machine where temperatures were above 100C.

They died from burns and heat exposure after being unable to escape.