SOUTH BRUNSWICK – The quick actions of emergency responders helped save the life of a woman trapped by a machine in her place of employment.
South Brunswick police received a 911 call of a trapped employee at Sunny Delight Beverage Company on Corn Road in the Dayton section of South Brunswick around 7:30 a.m. on June 29.
The Monmouth Junction Fire Department, South Brunswick EMS and police were dispatched to the warehouse.
Emergency crews found a 50-year-old Edison woman with her arm trapped in the machine, according to reports. The woman was cleaning the machine when she reached in to pick a bottle out and the machine activated, crushing her arm and trapping her, police said.
Monmouth Junction firefighters had to isolate the power to the machine and stabilize it prior to attempting to free the woman. Firefighters used high-pressure air bags and wooden wedges to separate the machinery from the woman’s arm. It took firefighters 25 minutes to extricate her, according to reports.
“The rescue was a result of a total team effort. It took time to stabilize the machine and then inflate the air bags to the point we could free her arm,” Monmouth Junction Fire Chief Scott Smith said in the statement.
The woman was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick by South Brunswick EMS and paramedics. She suffered serious arm injuries and was admitted to the hospital.
The incident is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
