Thread: RI: IA worker gets caught in industrial router machine

This is horrible.....this company hires a completely illiterate IA, then allows him to operate some pretty sophisticated machinery when the worker cannot read anything. This accident was bound to happen. I hope the IA sues the company and the company loses. I hope ICE investigates the status of all its workforce as its most likely this guy wasn't the only IA working there.


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He crossed the U.S. border, into the maw of a machine

01:34 PM EST on Sunday, February 17, 2008

By KAREN LEE ZINER
Journal staff writer

On Dec. 14, Leonardo Cos became trapped in a machine at work in Lincoln and was permanently disabled. Photo courtesy of the family

Leonardo Cos Elias arrived illegally in America with the sweat-and-blood skills of a subsistence farmer. In his native Guatemala, he raised maize and beans in the highlands and traveled south to chop sugar cane. He could wield a machete but not a pen: he never learned to read or write in either Ki’ché — his indigenous Mayan dialect — or in any other language.

But in America, Cos found factory work at the helm of a complicated machine. It mangled him for life.

Through a temporary agency, Cos began working last year at Packaging Concepts Ltd. in Lincoln, a manufacturer of display cases and furniture. First, friends say, he swept floors. Then he worked at a computer-numerically controlled (CNC) router, a high-speed machine that can cut metals, acrylic and wood while simultaneously engraving — or carving — intricate designs.
Extra
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OSHA has fined Lincoln company multiples times
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More on immigration in Rhode Island . . .

On Dec. 14, Cos became trapped in the machine and lay pinned to a table while overhead routing drills bore down on him.

The machine tore into his left leg and buttock. His leg, half his pelvis and his buttock were amputated.

He cannot sit up without toppling over.

The 32-year-old thus joined the ranks of Hispanic immigrants across the country — legal and illegal — whose injury and fatality rates rank higher than other populations, particularly in construction and agricultural work. Safety advocates say language and cultural barriers often impede training.

Fear of speaking up to employers over health and safety issues makes them vulnerable, whether they are here legally or not.

In this case, lawyers representing Cos are investigating whether machine function and/or safety devices — including a safety cable that triggers a kill switch— could have played a role in the accident.

“There may be an issue as far as safety devices, including a safety cable that may have been disconnected before the incident,â€

yep... I hope he files a massive multi, Multi Billion dollar claim against that company

"Through a temporary agency"
Take some funds from them too, so MAYBE they won't represent IA, seize it to pay for incarcationand victims of illegals and sent the poor cripple back.