Tin Compactor Crushes Worker To Death

Chakalisa Dube | Monday January 15, 2018 17:18

The incident happened late last week.

At press time, police said that they were not ready to reveal the names of the deceased as his next of kin were still being traced.

The young man, who is said to be from Matshelagabedi near Francistown, was on duty, operating the machine, at the time of his death. “Although it is not exactly known how he (the deceased) might have ended up falling on the compactor, his death is not being treated as suspect. It is being treated as an industrial accident.

We suspect that he might have mistakenly fallen into the compactor, which eventually crushed him. He was busy operating the machine at the time,” the Francistown Central Police station commander Lebalang Maniki said.

According to the police, the tin compactor belongs to a recycling company called Sun-Win Associates.

“Based on the preliminary investigations, the machine is usually operated by two people (including the deceased). The other one had gone outside and when he came back he found the 24-year-old trapped inside the compactor machine. He alerted others within the premises of the company, but it was already late to rescue the deceased.

He was certified dead on the scene,” Maniki said.

He said that investigations were on-going to establish if there was any breach of safety procedures by Sun-Win. “If at all the company breached safety procedures, the owners will be charged accordingly,” Maniki said.

This is the second incident in less than six months recorded by Francistown police of an employee who died in the workplace in following a freak accident.

In September last year an employee working for a Chinese company was run over by a truck.  The incident happened near Donga location along the Francistown-Matsiloje road.