PERRYVILLE, Mo. — A federal inspection less than a year ago found employees at a cereal plant here were at risk of machinery unexpectedly starting up when the equipment was supposed to be shut down for maintenance and that workers were not being notified before the machinery was fired up.
And a former employee of the plant said Monday that a plant worker killed last week in similar circumstances would still be alive if the company had followed its own policy.
Christina Allen, who said she worked at the Gilster Mary Lee Plant for about two years a decade ago, said the giant oven that killed 38-year-old Nicolas Lopez Gomez should have been locked out and tagged — a procedure that keeps workers from turning on machinery while it’s being serviced.
“If it was done correctly, he would still be here,†she said.
Allen, who now works as a team lead for Rhodes Convenience Store — just around the corner from the plant — said the oven in question is “ginormous.†She said it’s about 30 feet long and tall enough to fit a person standing with someone sitting on their shoulders.
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In September, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspected the plant.
The report says the Gilster Mary Lee Plant machines were turned on Sept. 7, and at times before then, without notifying other employees and without lockout and tagout devices used.
“An affected employee was able to turn on and operate a cooker which another employee was working on in the associated danger zone,†the online synopsis says.
Another citation in the inspection noted the company had been cited for this previously.
The plant was fined a penalty of $135,000 for the violation. The entirety of the report was not immediately available.
Gilster said in a statement Monday that it was saddened by Gomez’s death, which happened in a “cereal drying system.â€
“He will be greatly missed, and the company extends its sincere sympathies and condolences to his family, friends and coworkers,†the statement says.
Gilster Mary Lee, headquartered in nearby Chester, Illinois, has 11 locations across the Midwest, according to its website. It employs about 3,500 in total, according to the nonprofit Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center, and manufactures hundreds of foods, including cereal, cake mixes, dinner kits and baking products.
The Perryville plant, which employs about 325, is one of two major employers in the town.
Another plant, owned by Japan-based Toyoda Gosei, manufactures automotive parts. It has about 1,600 workers, said Perryville Mayor Larry Riney.
Riney told the Post-Dispatch he could not comment on the factory death but said the small town of about 8,600 is generally quiet.
“This is a very rare occurrence that we have any type of fatality in Perryville,†he said. “Even the last domestic dispute that came with a fatality was probably 30 years ago.â€
Gomez was killed Thursday afternoon, according to Perryville police. Police said he was a Guatemalan national who was working at the plant under the alias of Edward Avila. Gilster said he had been an employee for nine years.
Officers were called to the plant, in the 600 block of Old St. Mary’s Road, because Gomez had become stuck in the industrial oven that was shut down, police said. He had already died by the time emergency workers could get to him.
OSHA is investigating his death.
Gilster said it will also investigate his death and is providing counseling services to plant employees.
Chris Redding, a manager for nearby Park-Et Restaurant, said Perryville is a close-knit community.
“Everybody’s pretty much willing to help anybody out,†he said.
One thing he kept hearing since the accident was talk of lockout tags, he said.
Gilster has seven other OSHA violations on record since 2021, in addition to the September 2024 violation in Perryville.
Three of those inspections were at its plant in Chester between December 2021 and February this year.
All three were safety inspections, however those reports were not immediately available and no information was provided online. No violations were listed.
Two more inspections happened at its plant in Centralia, Illinois.
In October 2022, inspectors reported that the factory did not enclose three sprocket wheels and chains that were about one foot above a stacker unit conveyor that employees stood on. It was penalized almost $12,000.
A few months later, in February 2023, OSHA said it did not protect its employees by not shutting down a machine while it was being worked on.
It was ordered to pay $44,000 in penalties.
The last two inspections were health inspections, one conducted at the company’s factory in Joplin in August 2023 and the other at the Steeleville, Illinois, factory in October 2021.
Those inspection findings were not immediately available.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration was created in the early 1970s.
