Worker died after getting tangled in rolling machine, feds say. Company pleads guilty
MURDER NOT MANSLAUGHTER
Julia Marnin
Wed, January 11, 2023
A woman died within months of starting a job as a machine operator at a plastic manufacturing plant in Alabama, according to federal prosecutors. They argue the company running the facility was to blame for her death.
Catalina Estillado, who also went by Eva Saenz, became tangled in a set of moving rollers as part of machinery producing flat plastic sheets and was killed while working for ABC Polymer Industries LLC in Helena, a city about 20 miles south of Birmingham, court documents state.
The machinery was supposed to have a barrier in place while active under Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards, according to prosecutors. However, it wasn’t in place when Estillado was pulled into it on Aug. 16, 2017, officials said.
Now, ABC Polymer on Jan. 10 pleaded guilty to an OSHA violation causing the employee’s death, the Justice Department announced in a Jan. 11 news release.
Estillado’s “tragic death was entirely preventable,” Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim, of the department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in a statement.
The company could be sentenced to paying up to a $500,000 fine at a hearing on Jan 24, according to officials.
Erica Williamson Barnes, a company spokeswoman, told McClatchy News in a statement on Jan. 11 that ABC Polymer has “worked tirelessly” since Estillado’s death by making “its manufacturing operations safer by installing new equipment, implementing new policies and procedures, and engaging a third party safety consultant.”
Barnes added that the government has recognized this effort in the company’s plea agreement and that the company “welcomes the opportunity to close this dark chapter in its history and move forward.”
In June, Estillado’s husband was awarded $3 million in damages in a wrongful death lawsuit he filed after his wife was killed, The Birmingham News reported.
More on the case
ABC Polymer, an international plastics manufacturer headquartered in Alabama, hired Estillado on April 25, 2017, according to court documents.
The facility’s machinery Estillado worked with molded materials into plastic sheets before the sheets got pulled through a set of rollers, prosecutors said. Then, the sheets would get sliced into smaller pieces of plastic, according to officials.
For safety, the machinery had an installed barrier guard near the rollers that was supposed to be pulled down while it was moving, according to court documents.
ABC Polymer’s safety policies in place since 2008 stated that the barrier guards were there to protect employees from the equipment, court documents show.
However, this was not the case on Aug. 16, 2017, when Estillado was working unsupervised and got “entangled in the roller drums,” prosecutors said.
ABC Polymer knew employees would lift the barrier guards to cut off plastic that became tangled on the rollers because it trained them to do so, according to officials.
Now the company has “admitted that it knew or should have known that these practices exposed employees to a risk of injuries and death in violation of federal law,” the release said.
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Julia Marnin
Wed, January 11, 2023
A woman died within months of starting a job as a machine operator at a plastic manufacturing plant in Alabama, according to federal prosecutors. They argue the company running the facility was to blame for her death.
Catalina Estillado, who also went by Eva Saenz, became tangled in a set of moving rollers as part of machinery producing flat plastic sheets and was killed while working for ABC Polymer Industries LLC in Helena, a city about 20 miles south of Birmingham, court documents state.
The machinery was supposed to have a barrier in place while active under Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards, according to prosecutors. However, it wasn’t in place when Estillado was pulled into it on Aug. 16, 2017, officials said.
Now, ABC Polymer on Jan. 10 pleaded guilty to an OSHA violation causing the employee’s death, the Justice Department announced in a Jan. 11 news release.
Estillado’s “tragic death was entirely preventable,” Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim, of the department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in a statement.
The company could be sentenced to paying up to a $500,000 fine at a hearing on Jan 24, according to officials.
Erica Williamson Barnes, a company spokeswoman, told McClatchy News in a statement on Jan. 11 that ABC Polymer has “worked tirelessly” since Estillado’s death by making “its manufacturing operations safer by installing new equipment, implementing new policies and procedures, and engaging a third party safety consultant.”
Barnes added that the government has recognized this effort in the company’s plea agreement and that the company “welcomes the opportunity to close this dark chapter in its history and move forward.”
In June, Estillado’s husband was awarded $3 million in damages in a wrongful death lawsuit he filed after his wife was killed, The Birmingham News reported.
More on the case
ABC Polymer, an international plastics manufacturer headquartered in Alabama, hired Estillado on April 25, 2017, according to court documents.
The facility’s machinery Estillado worked with molded materials into plastic sheets before the sheets got pulled through a set of rollers, prosecutors said. Then, the sheets would get sliced into smaller pieces of plastic, according to officials.
For safety, the machinery had an installed barrier guard near the rollers that was supposed to be pulled down while it was moving, according to court documents.
ABC Polymer’s safety policies in place since 2008 stated that the barrier guards were there to protect employees from the equipment, court documents show.
However, this was not the case on Aug. 16, 2017, when Estillado was working unsupervised and got “entangled in the roller drums,” prosecutors said.
ABC Polymer knew employees would lift the barrier guards to cut off plastic that became tangled on the rollers because it trained them to do so, according to officials.
Now the company has “admitted that it knew or should have known that these practices exposed employees to a risk of injuries and death in violation of federal law,” the release said.
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