INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A 40-foot-tall movable platform toppled over at a New Castle steel plant Tuesday, killing one worker and seriously injuring a second, authorities said.
The injured worker was on top of the scissor lift at the Alleghany Ludlum Steel Corp. when the accident happened, Henry County Emergency Medical Service chief Ron Burns said. Burns could not confirm whether the worker who died was on the lift as well.
The workers' names were not immediately released. Henry County Coroner Stacey Guffey said the name of the dead worker would not be released until his relatives were notified.
Burns said the worker who died was pinned under the industrial crane and had to be pulled out by emergency responders. The surviving worker was found lying near the scissor lift and was flown to an Indianapolis hospital with chest abrasions, cuts and a head injury, the medical service chief said.
"The workers there were kind of in shock seeing blood and people laying there unresponsive," Burns said. "It was a pretty traumatic thing."
Indiana Department of Labor spokeswoman Stephanie McFarland said she was unable to comment on what kind of maintenance work the men were involved in because a state Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation is currently under way to determine what caused the crane to collapse.
Burns said both men were contractors from Ohio doing maintenance work in the factory, which produces cold-rolled stainless steel coils.