Worker crushed to death at Seattle recycling plant

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, June 20, 2007

SEATTLE – A 44-year-old worker was fatally crushed when a hydraulic lift at a recycling plant dropped on his head, authorities said.

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the death Tuesday but did not immediately identify the victim.

The state Department of Labor and Industries was investigating the death at the SeaDruNar plant. It appeared the man was working under the lift when he accidentally tripped a switch and caused it to depressurize, Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick said. The lift then dropped on the worker’s head.

Other workers had removed him by the time paramedics arrived. Medics gave him CPR en route to Harborview Medical Center, where he died.

Plant assistant director Sheri Healey said the man had worked at SeaDruNar for 15 years.

Owned by the nonprofit Seattle Drug &Narcotic Center, the recycling plant is run as part of an addiction recovery program.

The death was the second at the plant in recent years.