Chattanooga, TN — There was an accident reported in Chattanooga earlier today (Tuesday, February 3, 2015) that claimed the life of a worker. Police identified 54-year old Wallace Scarbro as the worker who died this morning after some sort of work-related accident at the Wrigley Manufacturing plant.
As of this afternoon, there haven’t been a lot of details released about the accident, but investigations are starting. It appears that Scarbro was working at the plant while the accident happened, the news confirmed.
Wrigley released a statement expressing their condolences, but that was it. The news said that Wrigley had a fatal accident in 2013, where a woman died after the ladder she was using was hit by a forklift.
Additionally, Tennessee’s OSHA branch has cited that particular Wrigley plant for numerous safety violations in the past. For those unfamiliar, Wrigley is a company that makes gum and mint products.
Map of the Wrigley Plant
View from the Road
Commentary:
The details here clearly need to be investigated, and it’s obvious that OSHA is going to be handling their own investigation at the plant in the coming days. While the local police and OSHA do excellent work, I can say with confidence that 1) their work will take a long time and 2) that they’ll primarily be looking for company and safety violations at the plant.
The best possible situation is that it will take around 6-9 months for even the preliminary details to be released. An alternative method, of course, is to have an in-depth, third party investigation done, one that focuses on whether all the machines were working that day and that sort of thing.
— Grossman Law Offices
