Worker injured at local plant: Employee freed from machine after incident
By Julie McClure -
August 29, 2017
Columbus, Indiana
A Rightway Fasteners employee was injured after becoming pinned in a machine at the plant.
Columbus firefighters responded to the industrial accident reported at 2:50 p.m. Tuesday at Rightway, 7945 S. International Drive in the Woodside Industrial Park.
The employee was believed to be cleaning bolts in the machine when the accident occurred, Columbus Fire Department Battalion Chief Mark Ziegler said.
He was pinned in the machine and then extricated by other Rightway employees before the fire department arrived, Ziegler said.
The employee was treated for cardiac arrest at the scene by firefighters and ambulance personnel and transported to Columbus Regional Hospital, he said.
The employee’s identity and his condition were not available in the hours immediately after the accident, Columbus Fire Department spokesman Capt. Mike Wilson said.
Rightway Fasteners makes parts for the automotive industry, specializing in cold forming, thread rolling, heat treatment and surface treatment of high-torque tension bolts, shafts and pins as well as supplying specialty screws and cold-formed parts to the auto industry.
A call to Rightway seeking information about the accident was not returned Tuesday.
Rightway is Bartholomew County’s 13th largest employer with 339 employees, according to local economic development statistics.
The fire department has responded to two industrial incidents at Righway in the past few years, including two contract workers suffering severe electrical shock when the front-end loader and crane came into contact with a high-voltage power line. The workers, employed by Columbus-based D.L. Industrial Inc., were moving an 18-foot-tall air handling unit from one part of Rightway Fasteners to another when the accident happened in June 2015.
In March 2016, the plant was evacuated after a fire damaged a zinc plating building, although no injuries were reported.
Rightway, with its headquarters in Japan, invested $3.9 million in a new production line in late 2016 and received a tax abatement from the city for the project. Toyota is Rightway’s largest customer, according to the company.