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A North Carolina machinist was killed earlier this month as a metal rod departed the high-speed lathe on which he worked, striking and killing him. The accident, which occurred at the Statesville machine shop facility of R.P Machine, happened as the victim, 62-year-old Leonard Key, of Mooresville, had been working on a lathe on the Cochran Street shop. A metal rod he was machining was ejected by the lathe at a high rate of speed and hit Key directly in…

A 21-year-old operator of the monorail at Walt Disney World died recently when the monorail he was piloting crashed into another train. Reports say the accident happened at the Transportation and Ticket Center where Disney patrons catch the monorail to the Magic Kingdom, Epcot and several Disney hotels. The operator, reported as Austin Wuennenberg, 21, of Kissimmee, was pronounced dead at the scene. Six patrons were also evaluated at the scene and released.   The two trains crashed on one…

A Kentucky machinist was killed last month when a generator malfunctioned during testing, allowing the air pressure inside the generator to pop a steel plate off its mounts, mortally striking the nearby worker. Milton White, 55, of Lewisburg, was killed instantly while he worked at the at Tennessee Valley Authority’s Paradise Fossil Plant. Reports say Muhlenberg County Coroner Tony Armour pronounced White dead at the scene. Workers employed to operate industrial machinery know theirs is a dangerous job. Yet adding…

While trying to get a drilling rig running in Snyder, Texas Brandon Garrett was sliced in half by a motorized spool of steel cable, adding yet another fatality to an already dangerous profession. Garrett, who worked for Patterson-UTI Energy, was a rig-crew floor hand working on Easter Sunday, helping four other crew members repair a plugged drill bit on a rig about 70 miles northeast of Lubbock in the Texas Panhandle. A supervisor split the men into two groups performing…

A huge explosion in rural Johnson County, about an hour southwest of Dallas, TX, killed one worker and injured seven others last month, reports say. The blast, which involved a massive explosion and enormous fireball that went several hundred feet into the air, occurred when a utility worker accidentally hit a large natural gas line near Cleburne, reports say. The identity of the deceased worker was not released. The worker, who was reportedly riding in a truck, was drilling holes…