COIMBATORE: A 23-year-old electrician, the sole bread-winner of an impoverished family, was killed as a fragment of a blade from a cutting machine that he was operating broke off from the main device and slashed his throat on Saturday noon.
Shockingly, the family members of the youth claimed that the body was left unattended for more than two hours after the accident, and was only retrieved after they arrived at the spinning mill later the same evening.
The victim, R Michael from Ulundurpet in Villupuram, was working as an electrician at Arun Kumar Spinning Mills in Kariyampalayam, Sulur, for the last four months.
Police said that Michael was cutting a piece of fibreglass to be fitted on to an air-conditioning unit. Michael was using an electric saw to cut the glass when the blade cut through the fibre and hit the concrete floor below. In the process, a portion of the blade broke off from the unit and slashed his throat.
Police said that the blade got lodged in Michael’s neck, and he died on the spot.
Based on a complaint lodged by Michael’s father, the Annur Police registered a case against A Murugasamy (36), the person in-charge of the mill, under Sections 287 (negligent conduct with respect to machinery) and 304(A) (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code.
Speaking to Express, Michael’s relatives said that the youth’s body had remained unattended for over two hours inside the mill.
“Only after we arrived did some other workers inside the mill help to take Michael’s body to the hospital,” he said.
The relatives of the deceased also alleged that the mill operators had initially refused to pay any compensation. “They did not provide any safety equipment, which led to Michael’s death. While using a cutting machine, the material being sawed should be mounted on a cutting table above the ground,” his father M Rayappan, who is a daily wage worker, said.
Death due to negligence, caused by lack of safety equipment and lack of safety protocols followed at construction sites and factories have claimed the lives of as many as 25 people in 2016 alone, police personnel at the Coimbatore District Crime Records Bureau told Express.