Mississippi

Mississippi slaughterhouse is directly responsible for death of migrant teen who was sucked into machinery, OSHA says

Federal officials cited Mar-Jac Poultry for 14 violations and have proposed more than $200,000 in fines.

A Mississippi slaughterhouse that supplies chicken to Chick-fil-A is directly to blame for the death of a 16-year-old worker who was sucked into equipment in July and killed within minutes, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Tuesday.

OSHA, an agency within the U.S. Labor Department, said that it had cited Georgia-based Mar-Jac Poultry for 14 serious violations and proposed more than $200,000 in fines.

WATCH ANYTIME FOR FREE

icon

Stream NBC10 Boston news for free, 24/7, wherever you are.

Duvan Pérez, the 16-year-old worker, was cleaning the deboning area of the Hattiesburg plant when his hand got caught and his body was pulled into the machinery. OSHA officials say that while a Mar-Jac manager was supervising in and around the area prior to and during the accident, "procedures were not utilized to disconnect power to the machine."

Pérez was the second person to accidentally die at the plant after getting sucked into a machine in a two-year period. 

Read the full story on NBCNews.com.

Contact Us