ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. — Note: The video is from June 2022
A Lancaster County candy factory has been fined just over $14,500 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration after two workers were trapped in a chocolate tank at the facility last summer.
The OSHA investigation determined that the workers trapped at the Mars Wrigley facility the on 200 block of S. Brown Street in Elizabethtown last June were not authorized to work in the tanks and were not properly trained on the safety procedures for the equipment.
The workers were external contractors from I.K. Stoltzfus Service. They were cleaning a tank in the facility when they became trapped, shortly after 2 p.m. on June 9, 2022, OSHA found.
Emergency responders were able to free the pair by cutting a hole in the bottom of the tank, officials with the company said.
Both workers had to be taken to hospitals, one via helicopter, though the extent of their injuries was never disclosed.
OSHA levied a total of $14,502 in fines to Mars Wrigley, citing the company for having the staffers work in the large tank without ensuring they had the “knowledge of the type of magnitude of the energy of the task” according to the OSHA report.
Mars Wrigley also did not provide the workers with the correct “energy control procedure," according to the OSHA report.
OSHA issued its citations within six months of the incident, and Mars Wrigley elected to settle the case with an informal discussion.
The OSHA report did not indicate any corrective actions taken by the company.