Teenager Sucked Into Meat Grinder In US Factory, Probe Ordered

A teenager has been killed in the US state of California after being sucked into a meat grinder at one of the fast food factories. The unnamed 19-year-old worked as a sanitation employee at Tina's Burritos food processing plant in Vernon, California. He was cleaning the meat grinder during the after-hours sanitation shift, according to a report in the New York Post.

Vernon Police Department's Sgt. Daniel Onopa informed that the incident occurred around 9:30 pm when the machine somehow got activated and sucked him inside. He said that other workers heard him scream and tried to stop the machine. When police arrived, the victim had already died.

Sgt Onopa said investigations are underway to determine what triggered the machine to start operating.

"Our thoughts are with the family, friends, and coworkers affected by this tragedy," he said.

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health will also probe the worker's horrific death and try to figure out what could've suddenly triggered the meat grinder.

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Social media reacts

Tributes poured in for the teenager as social media users expressed concerns about the safety regulations at the factories.

"Surely these machines need to be unplugged before it gets cleaned? What a horrible way to go," said one user while another added: "Oh my god, this poor man and his family, plus his fellow workers who must be traumatised. This is unspeakably horrific."

A third commented: "I used to work there. I remember someone wanting to open a sliding door with a forklift bc they didn't want to get off. They knocked the door over and hit somebody."

Tina's Burritos has not yet issued a statement on the fatal accident at its plant. The company is famous for its single-serve frozen burritos.

This is not the first incident where a worker has succumbed under such horrific conditions in California. In 2015, Bumble Bee Foods was ordered to pay $6 million to the family of an employee who was cooked in an industrial oven with tonnes of tuna. It was the biggest settlement ever in California for workplace safety violations involving a single victim.

Jose Melena, 62, was loading a 35-foot-long oven at the company's Santa Fe Springs plant when a co-worker mistakenly filled the pressure cooker with 12,000 pounds of canned tuna and turned it on.