...was shaken yesterday by the news of an accident at the local food-storage facility.
A huge pallet of acorns was being moved by crane to the upper level of an Oak Tree Food Storage Co. warehouse when a gust of wind shifted the load. Several ten-ounce acorns plummeted to the ground. A worker walking under the pallet was hit in the head and died on the scene. Witnesses reported hearing bonk, clunk, and tweety-bird sounds before the worker fell to the ground.
An Oak Tree spokesman said later that the worker was walking across the compound and entered a coned-off no-squirrel zone. That's where the accident happened. "Although he had a hard hat," he said, "he was carrying it in his paws." Paramedics said that if he'd been wearing the hard hat on his head, he probably would have lived.
A co-worker told us that though well-liked, the deceased had a history of ignoring safety precautions, which included frequently violating no-squirrel zones. He also rarely wore the required safety equipment and took short cuts that put him in harms way. "I swear," the co-worker said, "he thought he was a cat ... you know, with nine lives. Guess he was wrong about that."
www.safetycenter.navy.mil