A worker at East Penn Manufacturing Inc. was fatally injured Tuesday after he was reportedly pinned between metal pallets that had fallen onto him at the Richmond Township battery plant, authorities said.
Stephen Rapp, 48, of South Manheim Township, Schuylkill County, was pronounced dead at 8:41 p.m. in the emergency department at Lehigh Valley Hospital, Cedar Crest, said Lehigh County Coroner Daniel A. Buglio.
An autopsy done Wednesday determined Rapp died of mechanical asphyxia, and the death was ruled accidental, Buglio said.
The industrial accident happened at 7:49 p.m. at the plant on Deka Road near Lyons.
Fleetwood police, who cover Richmond Township, and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration are investigating.
A U.S. Department of Labor spokesperson said the agency has six months to investigate and release its findings.
Further details were not immediately available.
Source: Berkshire mont