A 33-YEAR-OLD man has died in an industrial accident while operating maintenance machinery.
Roman Chmil, who is originally from Ukraine, died shortly after 9am yesterday in an accident at the Keenan farm machinery plant in Borris, Co Carlow.
Mr Chmil, who lived in Carlow with his wife and their six-month-old son, had been working at the plant for the last five years. The Health and Safety Authority has begun an investigation.
Gerard Keenan, chairman of Richard Keenan & Co Ltd, which employs 160 people, said "Mr Chmil was respected by all his co-workers who are all deeply saddened and shocked. The accident happened in our maintenance building just before 9am while Roman was working on equipment used for cleaning steel."
Mr Chmil had been working on his own at the time. He was attended by first aid teams in the plant and by a local doctor but was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mr Chmil's remains were taken to Waterford Regional Hospital for a postmortem and gardaí said there was no foul play suspected.
"Roman was one of the earliest foreign nationals to be employed by Keenan in production and had progressed to be part of our capital maintenance team," said Mr Keenan. "As a mark of respect we have closed our plant and offices for today and tomorrow. We are all deeply shocked and saddened by this tragic accident and our thoughts and prayers are now with Angela and Michael."
