Police say Indiana RV plant worker fatally hit by forklift
The Associated Press
MIDDLEBURY, Indiana
Authorities are confirming that a forklift struck and killed a worker at a northern Indiana recreational vehicle factory.
The Middlebury Police Department said Tuesday it had completed an investigation into the death of 54-year-old Ricky Schlaback of Howe.
Town Marshal Kevin Miller says the results will be forwarded to the Elkhart County Prosecutor's Office for review and would not provide details on what led to Schlaback's death Thursday at the Winnebago Towables plant.
The county coroner's office ruled Schlaback died from blunt force injuries.
The company said in a statement it was deeply saddened by the death at the plant about 30 miles east of South Bend and was cooperating with police and state safety investigators.
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MIDDLEBURY, Indiana — The Elkhart County Coroner says a man who died at a Middlebury manufacturing facility on Thursday died from blunt force injuries.
Coroner James Eilliott on Tuesday said an autopsy performed Monday on Ricky Schlaback, 54, at the Homer Stryker School of Medicine in Kalamazoo determined the cause of death as blunt force injuries.
Police said Schlaback was struck by a forklift at Winnebago of Indiana, 201 14th St., Middlebury, on Thursday. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The case will be forwarded to the Elkhart County Prosecutor's Office for review.
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MIDDLEBURY, Ind. -
Middlebury police say a worker who died at the Winnebago plant last week, died after being hit by a tow motor.
Police made the announcement about the case of Ricky Schlabach, 54, Tuesday morning.
The Elkhart county coroner said Schlabach died of blunt force injuries.
It happened last Thursday at the Winnebago Towables plant on 14th Avenue.
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Winnebago Employee Dies In Workplace Mishap
April 8, 2017 by RVBusiness
Winnebago Towables employee Rick Schlabach was killed at about 6:30 a.m., Thursday (April 6) in a workplace incident involving a forklift at the Winnebago Industries Inc. division’s facility in Middlebury, Ind., according to a Friday (April 7) report by WNDU, a South Bend, Ind.-based television affiliate.
Winnebago spokesmen, who were unavailable for comment, released the following statement to WNDU: “We are deeply saddened to confirm an incident took place the morning of April 6 on the campus of our Winnebago Towables facility in Middlebury, Indiana. The incident resulted in the death of a Winnebago employee. We express heartfelt condolences to the family and everyone impacted by this unfortunate incident. Our primary focus is to support our team members during this difficult time and we are engaging grief counseling resources for our employees. We are also working with appropriate authorities related to this matter.”
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MIDDLEBURY, Ind. (WNDU) - Family of the man who was killed at Winnebago Towables in Middlebury spoke out Friday night about what happened.
Doug Smith, the son-in-law of the victim Rick Schlabach, said a coworker ran him over with a forklift. Smith said the incident happened around 6:30 a.m. Thursday morning, but he wasn't notified about it until closer to 11 a.m. that day.
"I thought it was some weird joke or something at first because you don't expect that," Smith said. "There was only one witness, or two witnesses, one of them's Rick, unfortunately."
Friday Winnebago released this statement to WNDU:
"We are deeply saddened to confirm an incident took place the morning of April 6 on the campus of our Winnebago Towables facility in Middlebury, Indiana. The incident resulted in the death of a Winnebago employee. We express heartfelt condolences to everyone impacted by this unfortunate incident.
Our primary focus is to support our team members during this difficult time and we are engaging grief counseling resources for our employees. We are also working with appropriate authorities related to this matter."
"Everyone's a mess," Smith said. "That stuff just doesn't happen. He was my dad and my father-in-law at the same time."
For now the family is left with the memories and confusion on how this could have happened.
"Rick was a family man in all aspects, he loved all of his grand kids, he loved his daughters to death," Smith said. "We're good people we work for our money we don't need any handouts, we just want to figure out what happened to Rick."
The family is disappointed they are not getting more information on what happened and hope to find out more soon. Smith says Rick didn't work there very long before the tragedy occurred.
Middlebury Police continue to investigate the incident. We expect to hear more on Monday.
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UPDATE
MIDDLEBURY, INDIANA
— The Elkhart County Coroner says a man who died at a Middlebury manufacturing facility on Thursday died from blunt force injuries.
Coroner James Elliott on Tuesday said an autopsy performed Monday on Ricky Schlaback, 54, at the Homer Stryker School of Medicine in Kalamazoo determined the cause of death as blunt force injuries.
Police said Schlaback was struck by a forklift at Winnebago of Indiana, 201 14th St., Middlebury, on Thursday. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The case will be forwarded to the Elkhart County Prosecutor's Office for review.
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