Worker killed when he gets pulled into wood chipper at lumber yard, Georgia cops say

An investigation is underway into how a man working at a Georgia lumber plant ended up in its wood chipper, according to investigators.

The victim was identified as 63-year-old Ralph Pickens of McCormick, South Carolina, the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia told McClatchy News.

He died on the job Monday, Feb. 5, at Pollard Lumber Company in Appling, Georgia, 20 miles northwest of Augusta.

Investigators say Pickens died after entering “an industrial conveyor wood chipper” at the plant, which manufactures southern yellow pine for wholesale.

Details of how Pickens got onto the conveyor belt have not been released.

His home in McCormick is about 30 miles north of the plant, across the state line.

Conveyor wood chippers come in various forms, but are designed to feed wood into a machine that breaks it into pieces. The wood typically rides atop a conveyor belt before dropping into the machinery.

This story was originally published February 6, 2024 at 1:07 PM with the headline "Worker killed when he gets pulled into wood chipper at lumber yard, Georgia cops say."