A 19-year-old man tragically died on Sunday evening while working in the kitchen at Tina’s Burritos factory in Vernon, California.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department said it received a call about a worker being hurt at the facility, ABC 7 reported on Monday.
A 19-year-old worker at a frozen burrito factory in Vernon died overnight in what appears to be a terrible accident. Police say he was cleaning an industrial food processor when the machine unexpectedly activated. https://t.co/JONIHzJGm5 pic.twitter.com/XD2rFUUuR7
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) July 14, 2025
While the man was cleaning an industrial food processor, the machine unexpectedly activated and he began screaming for others to help him switch it off. However, employees were unable to do so, Vernon Police Department Sgt. Daniel Onopa explained, adding the young man had already passed away when they arrived at the scene.
KTLA specified the machine the man fell into was a meat grinder. The outlet’s video showed people at the scene who appeared to be upset following the incident. The outlet said the man’s identity was not released pending his family’s notification:
“Sgt. Onopa said there was no indication of foul play and that it appears to be a terrible accident,” the ABC 7 report stated.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website (CDC), knowing what makes a machine stop and go is an important part of worker safety:
Machine related injuries and fatalities are a major concern across industries. Machines are essential to many work tasks. They have built-in capabilities like motion, force, high temperature, and other energy sources, which contribute to its potential for causing harm.
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Machine safety begins with understanding the nature of the machine’s operation. Some machines are designed to execute unchanging tasks, while others might operate continuously until completion. Additionally, certain machines function automatically, while others perform various functions on command. Understanding the specific characteristics and modes of operation of each machine is fundamental to machine safety.
In 2023, Mars Wrigley was fined over $14,000 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regarding an incident when two contract workers from another company fell into a vat of chocolate at the company’s facility in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, per Breitbart News.
