PORT ANGELES — A 38-year-old man died Friday from injuries sustained when a conveyor belt he was working on unexpectedly turned on at Evergreen Fibre Inc., a police investigator said Saturday.
The Port Angeles man’s name is being withheld pending notification of his family.
“This appears to be an accident,” said Port Angeles Police Officer Sky Sexton. “There’s nothing to lead us to believe anything was done maliciously.”
The Port Angeles Fire Department paramedics took the man to Olympic Medical Center after he was hurt at 2:14 p.m.
He died of internal injuries later that day, Sexton said.
Details were sketchy Saturday, but Sexton said the man was performing maintenance on a conveyer belt when the machine started.
“Somehow the power was turned on,” he said.
“He was working on some part that looks like it had fallen on him,” he added. “It was some type of filter used to weed out bigger pieces from smaller pieces.”
The company at 404 Eclipse Industrial Parkway makes wood chips and sawdust.
Sexton said the police investigate workplace fatalities to determine whether the incident is criminal in nature.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsula dailynews.com.