Investigation into worker's death could take half a year: OSHA
An investigation into the death of a 63-year-old janitor at an Elk Grove Village industrial company could take up to six months to conclude, Scott Allen, spokesman for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Chicago regional office said Thursday.
Dennis Woods, of West Chicago, was killed shortly before 4 p.m. Wednesday after being crushed while handling a large aluminum coil at Material Sciences Corp., 2200 Pratt Blvd.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
"He was a very loving and adoring father and he was a very dear friend of people," said Woods' son, Kevin Woods, of West Chicago. "He was a good man."
Woods had served in various capacities at Material Sciences' Elk Grove Village locations for more than 30 years.
He was trying to move the steel coil, reportedly weighing about 18,500 pounds and about 5,800 feet long, from a storage area onto a machine to receive a paint finish when the coil fell off and trapped him underneath, Elk Grove Village Fire Battalion Chief William Sellers said Wednesday.
Woods died before rescue teams arrived. It took firefighters more than five hours to get his body out from underneath the heavy coil.
John Klepper, vice president of human resources for Material Sciences Corp., said the company is conducting its own investigation.
"We're fully committed to understand exactly what happened," Klepper said. "We are cooperating with all the local authorities as they are doing their investigations. This is not a typical event by any stretch of the imagination."
Klepper said in the nine years he has been with the company there has not been an accident of this nature.
Material Sciences has about 400 employees working at steel processing plants in Elk Grove Village, in Ohio and also some offshore locations.
"He was a loyal employee," Klepper said of Woods. "It's a tragedy for our company and for the family particularly.
"We are not a very large company and so our employees are very close knit. This is a loss of a colleague and friend."