Thread: IA Worker at Brooklyn tortilla factory crushed to death

Young Guatemalan immigrant crushed to death after fall into mixer at Brooklyn tortilla factory

BY Edgar Sandoval, Henrick Karoliszyn and John Lauinger
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Originally Published:Monday, January 24th 2011, 9:04 AM
Updated: Monday, January 24th 2011, 5:38 PM

A young Guatemalan immigrant was crushed to death when he fell into a mixer at a Brooklyn tortilla factory early Monday, police said.

Juan Baten, 22, tumbled into a waist-high tub that was mixing dough at the Tortilleria Chinantla factory on Grand St. in Williamsburg, police and his wife said.

Cops say security video from the plant shows the victim reaching into the mixer, as if to grab something, and being sucked in, police said.

"I'm still in shock," Baten's common-law wife, Rosario Ramirez, 23, told the Daily News. "I got a call at 2:30 a.m. They told me he fell into the machine."

At the couple's tiny studio apartment in Bushwick Monday afternoon, candles burned on either side of a framed picture of Baten and Ramirez and their 7-month-old daughter, Daisy Stefanie.

Fighting back tears as she spoke, Ramirez recalled how her husband was raised in a small Guatemalan village and came to America six years ago.

She said he had been working at the factory without legal documents. He earned minimum wage, but worked long hours so he could support their budding family.

"He worked six days a week, nine hours a day," she said. "He didn't complain; he liked his job."

"He did everything so we could have a better life," she added, noting she plans to bury him in his homeland.

A fellow worker called 911 after the accident, but Baten was dead by the time emergency responders arrived, police said.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is also probing the accident. A spokesman for the federal agency said it has not previously investigated the factory.

A message left on an answering machine at the factory Monday morning was not returned.

Ramirez said all she could think about was her last conversation with her husband.

He usually worked from 5 p.m. until 2 a.m., and always called to check on her about 10 p.m., she said. It was the same on Sunday night - and she only wishes she had said more.

"He would call to say, 'Hi.' It was normal. When I spoke to him yesterday it was the same," she recalled. "I didn't think about it. It was the last time I spoke to him."

She choked up.

"He told me and our daughter, 'I'll see you later.' We never saw him later."

With Sarah Armaghan, Rocco Parascandola and Mike McLaughlin

jlauinger@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/201 ... _mach.html

Ice needs to check into this Brooklyn tortilla factory.

A very sad story. I hope America will do more to cease employers across Country from slaving undocumented people for lower wages. Rest in peace Juan.

Originally Posted by busygirl

Ice needs to check into this Brooklyn tortilla factory.

Ditto that....

Originally Posted by busygirl

Ice needs to check into this Brooklyn tortilla factory.

I agree.... however I'd wait a couple weeks for the story to die down and then raid the place when they are all back working thinking they are safe.

In other news, I think I may stay off eating tortillas for a few months!

Originally Posted by Pisces_2010

A very sad story. I hope America will do more to cease employers across Country from slaving undocumented people for lower wages. Rest in peace Juan.

I wouldnt call it slaving. That implies he was forced to come here and work. He did get paid. If you read the full article it says he even sent money home to guatamala to support his 4 brothers. Plus supporting his girlfriend and kid. Sounds like juan was doin pretty good for himself.

Here's the updated version for those who don't like to open links:

Originally Published:Monday, January 24th 2011, 9:04 AM
Updated: Monday, January 24th 2011, 9:07 PM

A video camera captured the gruesome death of a Guatemalan immigrant who was sucked into a dough-mixing machine at a Brooklyn tortilla factory Monday.

Juan Baten, 22, was fatally crushed when one of his arms got caught in the waist-high tub at the Tortilleria Chinantla factory on Grand St. in Williamsburg.

"I'm still in shock," said widow Rosario Ramirez, fighting tears as she described how Baten toiled at the minimum-wage job to support their 7-month-old daughter and his four brothers in Guatemala.

A surveillance video showed Baten repeatedly reached into the machine to press the dough and speed up the mixing, cop sources said.

At one point, he reached too far down and his arm was snagged on one of the mixer's rotating blades.

The machine then pulled him inside the large vat, and the mechanical arms crushed his head and chest, sources said.

The medical examiner ruled it an accident, but the NYPD and Occupational Safety and Health Administration are investigating.

OSHA said it had no record of prior violations. State records show the company failed a health inspection in June but passed a followup in October.

Before Baten left for his fateful shift at the factory, he played happily with his infant daughter Daisy Stefanie at his tiny Bushwick apartment.

"She always made him happy," Ramirez, 23, said as candles burned on either side of a picture of the young family.

Baten came to America six years ago after his father was hit by a bus and killed in Cabral, Guatemala, Ramirez said.

He worked at the factory without legal documents, earning $7.25 an hour for the grueling 5 p.m.-to-2 a.m. shift.

"He worked six days a week, nine hours a day," she said. "He didn't complain. He liked his job."

Ramirez said she had asked him to find other work so he could spend more time with their daughter, but he refused, saying his bosses were nice.

"He did everything so we could have a better life," Ramirez added. She said she will bury her husband in his homeland - a cruel end to the couple's dream of moving back to Guatemala someday.

Ramirez hopes she will get some support from the company's owners, who could not be reached for comment.

"I don't know what we are going to do," she said, cradling her daughter.

Baten always called from work to check on his wife at 10 p.m., she said.

"He would call to say hi. It was normal. When I spoke to him [Sunday] it was the same," she recalled. "I didn't think about it. It was the last time I spoke to him."

She choked up. "He told me and our daughter, 'I'll see you later.'"

With Barbara Ross, Sarah Armaghan, Rocco Parascandola and Mike McLaughlin

jlauinger@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/201 ... z1C3T9pcsX

While it is a tragedy that anyone should lose their life in such a way there are other details to this incident I'd like to KNOW.

Was this man being paid on the books?

Was this family collecting any Social Services?

(I'm betting the answer to that second one is yes.)

Brooklyn worker killed in tortilla-mixer horror

By LORENA MONGELLI, IKIMULISA LIVINGSTON and JAMIE SCHRAM

Last Updated: 5:01 AM, January 25, 2011

Posted: 3:00 AM, January 25, 2011

A 22-year-old Guatemalan immigrant was crushed to death when he tumbled into the mixer at a Brooklyn tortilla factory early yesterday morning, police said.

Juan Baten, 22, often had to reach into the mixer to help the dough along, sources said, but at 2:30 a.m. his hand was snagged by one of the blades, and he was sucked inside.

The powerful turbines broke his neck and killed him instantly, police said.

Baten, who lived with his common-law wife Rosario Ramirez and their 7-month-old daughter Daisy, moved to New York from the tiny village of Cabral six years ago, shortly after his father was killed in a bus accident, family and friends said.

He recently had a premonition something bad was going to happen to him, his friend, Javier Leon, told the Post.

"He told me dreamed of his late father. He said, ‘I had a dream with my father, and something may possibly happen to me in the next few days,''' Leon recalled.

Baten's co-workers, including his cousin, Hector Baten, think he may have been listening to music just before the accident and dropped his earphones into the dough. Then when he tried to retrieve them, he was pulled in, Leon said.

"It’s not logical that he would put his hands inside that machine with blades," he said.

Baten had no time to scream for help.

"When co-workers in the front of the factory started noticing a problem with the tortillas [coming out], they called out, ‘Juan, Juan,'" Leon said. "When he didn’t respond, Hector Baten ran over and saw Juan, but it was too late."

On surveillance video at the factory, police sources say, Baten can be seen putting his hand into the waist-high mixer, as though he were trying to help the dough along, when he was dragged in head first.

Baten worked six nights a week at the Tortilleria Chinantla in Williamsburg and by day would care for the baby girl, his wife said.

"He was happy yesterday. playing with the baby,'' she said. "He called ... while he was at work and said he would see us later. I am still in shock."

According to friends, Baten also worked part-time as a technician for a local DJ. He occasionally suffered from fainting spells, they said.

"He was a hard worker with an excellent future ahead of him," Leon said.

Baten and his wife had been together for three years, and his factory job helped supported them as well as his family in Guatemala.

Mynor Perez-Rojas, a neighbor who grew up in the same village in Guatemala, said Baten regularly sent money to his mother and three younger brothers.

"He was like the father for all of the family," he said.

Federal investigators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are looking into yesterday’s tragedy.

To date, the tortilla factory, owned by Erasmo Ponce, has no history of workplace violations, an OSHA spokesman said.

Additional reporting by Jeremy Olshan

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/broo ... z1C3dfPGMK

One could hardly make this stuff up....what a way to go. I hope he did not suffer. Very sad.