Help, police, murder: Two workers fall into chocolate vat at Mars Wrigley factory
Luckily, the two workers were rescued instead of getting sucked up into a nearby tube
Aux Features WRIGLEY
In the summer of last year, when the northern hemisphere’s sugary treats were at their stickiest, an accident occurred at Elizabeth, Pennsylvania’s Mars Wrigley factory: Two contract workers fell into a vat of Dove chocolate and were saved after a rescue team arrived to cut them out of their sweet, sweet prison.
Details of the incident have since surfaced and been reported by the BBC, which headlines the story not by pointing out how a serious industrial accident resembles a whimsical scene of child endangerment from a classic film but by pointing out that the factory has been fined $14,500 by the Occupational Safety And Health Administration (OSHA).
The report explains that the contract workers’ chocolatey dilemma required “more than two dozen rescuers” to solve and occurred because the two “were hired to clean tanks, and were not provided with proper safety training.”
The pair fell into a “partly-full” ingredient-mixing tank used to manufacture Dove, not a river of cold, stinking water filled with coffee grounds. They were saved by the rescue team cutting a hole into the bottom of the tank, presumably just after the factory manager ranted about the contamination of his “beautiful chocolate” and stated, “help, police, murder” to those nearby.
Whether Timothée Chalamet was in the vicinity of the factory at the time of the accident is still unknown. But we urge OSHA to investigate this possibility further to see whether a method actor in a big hat was captured on security tapes, capering around the factory and singing strange songs while a crew of green-haired hanger-ons worked out a tune about the importance of proper workplace safety regulations.
[via Boing Boing]
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24 Comments
I sincerely hope the workers (a) were uninjured (b) received safety training thereafter and not just fired (c) have health benefits. All three of these seem unlikelydoes anybody remember “Midnight Madness” where the guy dives into the PBR vat?
If they did sustain injuries, worker’s compensation laws (and lawyers) should be there to help. From reading the BBC story, it seemed that there was a bit of a mismatch between Mars needs, and the tasks for which the workers were trained. Knowing Mars reputation, none of this is surprising.
No, but I remember Strange Brew:
“I gotta take a leak so bad I can taste it!”
“I think it’s getting warmer in here.”“Uh … I don’t feel anything.”
History repeats itself.
Lolly doo-dum, lolly doo-dum-day
THAT is what I was looking for.
First thing I thought of when I read the headline. I wondered if someone would reference this since the source material is fairly old.
Great. Now my bag of candy is going to cost an extra $0.05.
I would like to present this award for Excellence in Headline Writing
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is such a terrible movie. Like, grossly, cynically misanthropic and hateful of children. But it’s based on Dahl, so I guess it makes sense.
You described what’s great about it.
lol You are stupid with bad opinions.
god you suck
The fuck? Willy Wonka jokes? The contractors were near death, which is why emergency workers had to cut the tank open. One had to be air vaced out. There’s nothing funny about it. What the fuck is wrong with you?
The absurdity of the modern human condition.
Sir, this is a Wendy’s the AV Club.
Isn’t the quote “Help. Police. Murder.”?
Oh, so THAT’S what you get when you guzzle down sweets.
They were just testing the facilty for Maya’s new “human sized” M&M. Btw, I’m making a joke, but seriously. This is some prime AV crap writing. I couldn’t even imagine their terror. Low, even for Gawker. What’s next? Kotaku reporting on the Turkey earthquakes while comparing it to a Dragonball Z episode? Do better.
Two workers almost died due to appaling labour laws and your response is to make shitty Willy Wonnka jokes about it. I fucking hate liberals.
they hate you too bb
Where’s the humorous pop culture article about the child slaves who harvested the cacao?