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Worker identified in Nebraska Prime accident
For six months, the death of a worker killed at a Hastings meat packing plant was kept pretty quiet. Until now.
His name was Adalid Nava-Arcos. But he has many aliases. Arcos' clothing got caught in a machine. He died a couple of days later. With several unanswered questions, after nearly six months, we are now uncovering the details. "The best information that I have is that the employee's clothing or garment got caught in a machine and lifted him up into the machine," said Hastings Police Captain Adam Story. The Hastings Police Department responded to the accident at the Nebraska Prime group plant in January and did write a report. But the name of the man was not released. "There were multiple names that were given to us that were possible names. The officer and the detectives went through the information and were in contact with various different entities, even the Mexican consultants and both Nebraska and other states," said Story. The Hastings Fire Department responded to the accident. And did write a report but they didn't know the identity of the man at the time, either. "Even though we all think that we know everybody in a town like Hastings, there are people that are in town that aren't permanently here, may not have identification with them or the nature of the injuries may preclude a judgment that that's the party that was involved," said Hastings Fire Chief Kent Gilbert. Why was it so hard to trace down the victim's identity? "The form of identification a person has is important, whether it looks to be legitimate or not. We deal with the entire spectrum of society so we see people on a variety of circumstances and what may appear to be clear and easy isn't," said Gilbert. We have heard comments from others that the victim may have been an undocumented worker. As far as the rest of the story, Rural Metro responded to the accident and was in charge of transporting the victim to the Mary Lanning. The victim was then flown to a hospital in Lincoln where he later died. Since the accident took place at work, OSHA takes over the investigation. So, who's responsible for release the victim's name? Typically, the finger is pointed at the county attorney. But since Arcos died while receiving medical care that's not the case. "If a person is taken to a medical facility and being treated and under the care of a physician while they're treating them and they pass away, it would be the physician caring for them at the medical facility would do the death certificate," said Story. We reported earlier this week this plant is being fined almost $200,000 for safety violations that resulted in the death of Arcos. Nebraska Prime is not talking and neither is OSHA. We will continue to follow this story and give you updates. |
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