Chocolate factory worker dies after falling into vat of chocolate

Malganis wrote:

Very sad and strange...

Quote :

A temp worker at a Camden chocolate processing plant died this morning after he fell into an eight-foot vat that was mixing and melting chocolate to be used in Hershey's candy.

Vincent Smith II, 29, of Camden, was standing atop a platform and tossing blocks of solid, raw chocolate into the tank, Jason Laughlin, spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, said.

The tank was heated at 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and paddles inside stirred the chocolate as it was thrown in.

When Smith fell around 10:30 a.m., one of his three coworkers on the platform immediately rushed to turn the machine off and the two others tried to pull him out.

But Smith had been struck by one of the paddles, suffering fatal injuries. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and Camden firefighters pulled his chocolate-covered body out of the tank.

Couldn't they have some way of putting the chocolate in there without using a guy standing above a very hot vat with big paddles in it, throwing the chocolate overboard? That just seems like an accident waiting to happen... which, apparently happened. At least put the guy in a safety harness so he doesn't tumble in.

Exactly!

ETA: Oh, crap. With this post I am no longer a fantabulous fangirl.

Drowning in chocolate.

Is it bad of me that when I saw that title, I thought, "SHIT! I so hope that means what I think it means because SHIT that would be such an awesome way to die!"

?

Harley Quinn hyenaholic wrote:

Drowning in chocolate.

Is it bad of me that when I saw that title, I thought, "SHIT! I so hope that means what I think it means because SHIT that would be such an awesome way to die!"

?

Oh, Harley. What are we going to do with you? :blink:

Drown her in a vat of chocolate?

That sounds good.

Sara wrote:

120°, is that "very hot"?

No.

It's hot tub warm. Totally harlmess, assuming you don't sit in it for two hours. The fact that you can't breathe it probably did more to hurt this dude than the temperature.

Also, fuck Celsius.

Quote :

I prefer dark chocolate (doesn't matter what kind, though Ghirardelli Chocolate is definitely my favorite).

Quote :

(Though I do like Godiva Chocolate)

I like chocolate that isn't five bucks a bar.

NESTLE CRUNCH OR HERSEY DARK FTW!!1!

Sara wrote:

Drown her in a vat of chocolate?

Yes, but what type of chocolate?

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

Quote :

I prefer dark chocolate (doesn't matter what kind, though Ghirardelli Chocolate is definitely my favorite).

Quote :

(Though I do like Godiva Chocolate)

I like chocolate that isn't five bucks a bar.

NESTLE CRUNCH OR HERSEY DARK FTW!!1!

Mikey, you have horrible taste.

^
I have cheap taste. It's a good thing.

I have expensive tastes in food. I guess that means I am able to recognize quality, but HOLY FUCK THAT'S EXPENSIVE

(Has forked over too much money to Godiva to have any opinion)

Still, poor guy. That's a really unhappy way to die, considering that he had time to think baout what was happening before he was struck. That just seems scary.

grmblfjx wrote:

I have expensive tastes in food. I guess that means I am able to recognize quality, but HOLY FUCK THAT'S EXPENSIVE

That's why I only have it once every other year.

grmblfjx wrote:

Drown her in a vat of chocolate?

Something similar happened to a Discworld character, as I recall.

Knorg wrote:

grmblfjx wrote:

Drown her in a vat of chocolate?

Something similar happened to a Discworld character, as I recall.

Poor Miss LeJean. Wasn't that suicide, though?

ETA: in lieu of a thread-crossover, shouldn't you, as a Discworld-fan, know that knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass? I am disappointed, verily.

Jay/Cris wrote:

ETA: in lieu of a thread-crossover, shouldn't you, as a Discworld-fan, know that knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass? I am disappointed, verily.

I know that, but it doesn't work in the context of the thread!

People would assume I was saying the smart people had big fat arses.

They do.


Well, I do.

^
Grmblfjx, that is not true.

You aren't smart.

I'm weeping for the chocolate ruined in this accident.

Malganis wrote:

For me, for some reason the sadness of the story is compounded by the fact that he was a temp worker. It was just a temporary job, one that he was probably very happy to get (considering the economy), and he ends up dying doing it.

A high fraction of the workers in that factory might be temps, given how the product is highly seasonal. The same hands are hired year after year, just because of accidents like this.
My husband worked three months in a chocolate factory and because he was a temp doing shifts, it was the best paid job he ever had. But one day with the empty tray trasponter he went this close from losing both arms. The stainless steel tray that had gotten stuck in and got knocked in his place was munched like tinfoil.

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

^
Grmblfjx, that is not true.

You aren't smart.

Awww, honey, I can see how it would be difficult for you to tell.

I suppose 'Unfortunate bloke dies in industrial accident' wouldn't be nearly such a good headline, however true.

I hope the safety people were all over this company like a burr.

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

Sara wrote:

120°, is that "very hot"?

No.

It's hot tub warm. Totally harlmess, assuming you don't sit in it for two hours. The fact that you can't breathe it probably did more to hurt this dude than the temperature.

Hot tubs are about 100-108°, according to Wiki. Still, 120° can supposedly take up to 5 minutes to burn you (according to water safety articles on Google), so he probably would've survived, possibly w/ minimal burn damage, if he hadn't been struck by the paddles.

Also, I was eating Hershey's kisses while reading this and I got up to go get more when I was done. Guess I'm desensitized.

Sparrow wrote:

Also, I was eating Hershey's kisses while reading this and I got up to go get more when I was done. Guess I'm desensitized.

You aren't alone. This article actually gave me a craving for Hershey's. I think I must be evil.

Human flavored chocolate! Get it while it lasts!

Damn, poor guy. >_< Industrial accidents always weird me out.

But at least it was only Hershey's.

bleachedblackcat wrote:

Human flavored chocolate! Get it while it lasts!

And now I'm having flashbacks to the Monty Python sketch about the Whizzo Chocolate Company:

"And this one. Crunchy frog."

*Flowery description of the frogs*

"Be that as it may, it's still a frog."

"Of course."

"Don't you even take the bones out?"

"If we took the bones out it wouldn't be crunchy, now would it?"