Freed by colleagues

Worker was buried under plastic granulate

A 56-year-old worker had to be shoveled free by his own colleagues on Friday morning. He had previously been buried under around 800 kilograms of plastic granulate. The man was flown to hospital with serious injuries.

A 56-year-old North Macedonian from Wels was filling an approximately 1.60-meter-high feed hopper with around 800 kilograms of plastic granulate in a big pack at a production company in Gunskirchen at 9 a.m. on Friday. The worker lifted the big pack over the hopper using a forklift truck and climbed over the forklift onto the inlet sieve in the hopper. He then cut open the big pack, whereupon, for reasons as yet unexplained, all the granulate spilled out and buried him underneath.

Serious injuries
Other employees immediately came to the man's aid and shoveled him free. The crew of the emergency helicopter provided first aid together with the ambulance. Fire departments from the surrounding communities helped to secure the funnel and rescue the casualty. The 56-year-old was seriously injured and flown to hospital.