Indian origin worker dies after being dragged into machine

LONDON - An Indian origin worker was killed in a British factory after he was dragged into a machine that he was operating alone.

Mitesh Prashar, 24, who was working at Duco International in Slough, suffered severe injuries after his left arm and shoulder were crushed between two rollers of the heavy-duty machinery.

Witnesses have said that Prashar may have become caught in the machine while checking giant sheets of rubber for imperfections.

He was pronounced dead on the factory floor.

An inquest jury was told Wednesday that Prashar had expressed concern about using the machine without supervision.

Prashar’s family was present at the hearing in Windsor, Berkshire.

The victim had been working at Duco International Ltd based in Slough since January 2007 and the incident took place Jan 15, 2008, Daily Mail reported Thursday.

At about 2 a.m. on that fateful night, colleagues heard a strange noise before realising that something was wrong.

“I heard what sounded like a loud sigh more than a scream. It wasn’t a cry for help. It was between a cry and a sigh and there were not any words. It wasn’t somebody in pain,” team leader Richard Nugus was quoted as saying.

“I was surprised that Mitesh was put on the night shift unsupervised without another inspections operative. It seemed to be quite a short period before he was allowed to run it (the machine) single-handedly.”

Prashar’s colleagues ran to help him and saw that his arm and shoulder had become trapped between metal rollers on the machine.

Paramedics declared him dead.