Italian Factory Owner Crushed To Death While Inspecting Machines
A factory owner in Italy has been crushed to death by the giant hard wheels of his cheese factory. He was trying to check on a robot programmed to rotate the cheeses to help them germinate automatically, but a nearby shelf suddenly collapsed. The hard cheeses were arranged on shelves as high as 33 ft and weighed about 40 kg each.
The shelves were set up in a way that if one shelf fell, it would knock over the others, causing thousands of heavy cheese wheels to tumble and bury the 74-year-old owner beneath them. According to the report, the owner was working alone when the tragic incident occurred, and there was no one there to help him. This is a very painful and unfortunate situation.
It took up to 12 hours before rescuers could finally locate the poor older man, whose name was later disclosed as Chiapparini. Chiapparini, the founder of the cheese factory, has been managing the company for almost 18 years, as it was said that the firm had been making Grana Padano since 2006.
The tragic accident featured in our stories happened on Sunday evening, and a good samaritan who heard the noise of the collapsing shelves raised the alarm. Almost 20 firefighters from nearby cities actively organized a search party all night.
As the morning approached, every hope that the older man might have survived under the mountain of the hard wheels gradually disappeared. The body was found under the heap of fallen wheels by 9 am on Monday. Antonio Dusi, a fire department member, said that they had to move the cheeses and the shelves using their hands.
The factory, which also doubles as a warehouse, was located in the small town of Romano di Lombardia, not far from Bergamo and contains almost 25,000 wheels of Grana Padano. This hard cheese looks like a Parmigiano Reggiano.
Local farmers said that the incident was very devastating as something had never happened in the area, not even during the earthquake in 2012 in Emilia Romagna, where thousands of wheels collapsed due to the tremors back then, but no one was killed.
One of the daughters of the 74-year-old man Mary Chiapparini said on the official company website, "We have been producing milk forever. My father is the youngest of seven siblings. He worked with his father and two older brothers for years. The farm was shared between the brothers in 1977 and was given his share of 26 cattle. His milk-making adventure began then.
The Mayor of Romano di Lombardia environs also expressed his sad feelings about the accident, saying:
“The accident is a tragedy and a horrible death. Mr Chiapparini was one of the great producers we have in Grana Padano, and a death like this is a big blow to all of us," the Mayor lamented.
According to the news, the Carabinieri police are still actively investigating the accident and trying to discover the main cause for the shelf to collapse.