Worker, 48, dies in machinery accident Plainfield resident was longtime employee of Sabert Corp. BY MICHAEL ACKER Staff Writer SAYREVILLE - A machine operator died in an apparent accident while working at a borough factory last week. Gonzalo Mera, 48, of Plainfield, an employee of Sabert Corp., died around 7:50 p.m. April 9 after suffering a traumatic blow to his head while he was in the process of fixing machinery. "Sabert Corp. and all of its employees are grieving the loss of a valuable and long-term employee," the company said in a statement. The plant, located in the area of Main Street and Crossman Road, is where the 25-year-old company manufactures plastic food-packaging products for food service distribution, supermarkets and large chain stores like Costco. The company is expected to start building its world headquarters and warehousing facilities on 12 acres of property located on the Main Street Extension in Sayreville's waterfront area in the next 60 days. Police said Mera sustained an injury to the right eye and forehead, which caused a laceration and heavy bleeding. Police arrived to find him lying on the ground and having difficulty breathing, Sayreville Detective Mathew Bandurski said. Witnesses reportedly told police that the machine may have been jammed and that Mera may have been attempting to fix the problem. A first aid squad transported Mera by ambulance to an area hospital, where he died later that evening. Robert Castillo, the corporate health, safety and environmental manager at Sabert since last May, said that while the machine is used for production, the equipment was not in production at the time of the incident. Sabert Senior Vice President Gary Ziznewski said the incident had a significant impact on the 300 employees who work at the site, as well as the company's other locations. "It is a very unfortunate situation," he said. "Everybody is quite upset about it." Ziznewski said that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued fines to the company for lockout/tagout violations in 2006, but the infractions were minor in nature. Lockout/tagout is a standard safety process and procedure whereby equipment is safeguarded before any type of maintenance is performed on it. "They were very, very minor in scale," Ziznewski said. "The company has a very good history of work safety. We received some awards from our insurance carrier for being well below the average, as far as incidents." OSHA Assistant Area Director Carol Tiedeman said the administration has six months to complete its investigation on this incident. She noted that Sabert resolved the problem that led to the fines in 2006. Mera was a reliable, skilled and experienced machine operator and a valued member of the Sabert Corp. for almost nine years, according to the company's press release. The company said it would be providing grief counseling to Mera's close colleagues. "This accident is so difficult to understand given the fact that Gonzalo had undergone extensive safety training, including annual 'lock-out/tag-out' training as do all of our manufacturing personnel," Castillo said. "Clearly, there is much more work to be done to ensure full compliance with our safety programs and good manufacturing practices." Castillo said that the OSHA fines that date back to 2006 were reduced due to the company's quick response to the problem. He added that the company went a recordhigh 260 consecutive days without an accident until this occurred. "This has never occurred at any of our facilities," Castillo said. "Nothing to this level." Mera's funeral was held Sunday in Plainfield. His body was to be flown to Ecuador for burial.