Article Author:
Associated Press
Hallelujah Hadero
Federal occupational safety investigators are investigating the death of an Amazon employee and injuries that may have led to the death of another employee. increase. An investigation is already underway following the third death during the company's annual Prime Day shopping event in mid-July.
All three Amazon employees died within this one month period and were employed at the company's facilities in New Jersey.
A new Occupational Safety and Health Administration study puts fresh scrutiny into Amazon's injury rates and workplace safety procedures, but they have long been considered inadequate by labor and safety advocates. has been criticized.
Labor Department spokesperson Denisha Braxton said Thursday that the latest death was at an Amazon facility in Monroe Township, about 20 miles (35 kilometers) northeast of Trenton. Confirmed it happened last week. In a second investigation, she investigates an accident that occurred on July 24th at an Amazon facility in Robbinsville. According to Braxton, the worker involved in the accident died three days later.
In a statement, Robbinsville Police Chief Michael Polaski said police had received reports that a worker had hit him after he fell from a three-foot (one-meter) ladder. Later, on July 24, he said he responded to a warehouse called PNE5. Head.
The workers were conscious and alert when police arrived, he said, Polaski. But police were told that CPR was performed on him by other workers before they arrived, he said. The person was taken to a hospital and OSHA was notified of the incident the same day, he added. Asked, but not immediately answered.
His two recent deaths were first reported by the USA Today Network.
OSHA officials declined to provide additional information about the fatalities, citing the investigation being public. Authorities take up to six months to complete each investigation.
Seattle-based Amazon spokesman Sam Stevenson said in a statement that the company was "deeply saddened by the loss of a colleague and extends our condolences to their families and friends.
"Our investigation is ongoing and we are cooperating with OSHA. I do," Stevenson said.
Last month, OSHA launched another investigation into the death of a worker at an Amazon warehouse in the town of Carteret, New Jersey, during the company's Prime Day shopping event. It turned out to be the largest in the company's history. Federal officials have not released details about the death, but reports say the worker, 42, has been identified as Rafael Reynaldo Mota Frias.
An Amazon spokesperson said the company's internal investigation into Carteret's death "was related to a personal medical condition, not a work-related incident."
"OSHA is currently investigating this incident and, based on the evidence currently available, fully expects to reach the same conclusion," the spokesperson said. Parson said.
The obituary news comes amid extensive scrutiny of the company's operations. In late July, OSHA officials toured Amazon facilities in New York, Illinois, and Florida after receiving a referral from the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York alleging health and safety violations. The U.S. Attorney's Office's civil affairs division is also investigating safety issues at Amazon's warehouses and "fraud attempts to conceal injuries from OSHA and others," an agency spokesperson said. .
