Fatal Lift Truck Accident Temporarily Closes Production Plant

    June 11, 2009
    FALL RIVER, MASS—A production worker died after being struck by a container elevated by a lift truck.

    On June 3, a lift truck operator at Blount Seafood Corp. was removing two containers from the top of a stack in the soup production area when one of them fell and hit Justin Cordeiro, 20.

    Emergency respondents took Cordeiro to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

    Blount Seafood, a producer of refrigerated and frozen gourmet soups for food-service and retail operations, closed its Fall River plant temporarily and pledged to assist police and OSHA in the investigation.