Man Killed in Workplace Accident Identified

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The man who died in an apparent workplace accident Tuesday morning in Cartersville was recently hired as a full-time employee by Syncot Plastics.

That’s according to an incident report released Wednesday morning by the Cartersville Police Department.

Christopher Todd Williams, 40, of Rockmart was killed when he climbed into roller bar and was dragged through the machine, Cartersville police spokesperson Major Mark Camp previously told Patch.

Officers arrived at the facility, located at 707 South Erwin Street, to investigate the fatal accident. Sharon Bing, identified as the owner of the facility, told officers Williams was working on a processing line at a machine known as the Blendbox, a large machine ”with a roller that has hooks and feeds plastic onto a conveyor belt,” the incident report states.

Williams went around the conveyor belt and “went into the area where the roller was,” the officer wrote.

Two witnesses who were interviewed said they heard the man screaming and saw other employee’s run towards Williams’ location, but did not see what happened.

• RELATED: Workplace Accident Kills Man, 40

Bing told officers the facility was actually transitioning from third shift (11 a.m. to 7 p.m.) to first shift (7 a.m. to 3 p.m.) at the time of the incident. The “off-going shift was cleaning prior to the end of their shift,” according to the report.

“Ms. Bing added that only the area at the front of the Blendbox is cleaned and that is usually done with an air hose to blow the loose remnants away from the roller,” the officer stated. “It appears that the victim went into the machine without permission and while attempting to clean the area, was accidently pulled under the roller and killed.”

Criminal investigators were briefed on the incident and while Bartow County coroner investigator Brian Irish ruled ruled the incident to be an accident, Williams’ body was sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Crime Lab for an autopsy.

Williams had worked through a temporary agency for Syncot, but was hired full-time on Monday, March 9, the report states.

Photo credit: Patch file