ELLERBE — A farm worker died of electric shock Monday when a piece of equipment he was operating struck a power line, sheriff’s deputies and state regulators said.
Joel Escovedo, 31, of Gibson Mill Road east of Ellerbe, was electrocuted while moving a grain auger that was about 30 feet tall, according to a Richmond County Sheriff’s Office report. The accident happened at Rankin Farms Inc., 2684 Gibson Mill Road.
Deputies responded to the emergency call at 9:14 a.m. Monday along with the Derby Volunteer Fire Department, Richmond EMS, FirstHealth EMS and power crews from Duke Energy Progress. No fires or other injuries were reported in the accident.
Officials with the N.C. Department of Labor’s Agriculture Safety and Health Bureau are investigating the death to determine if any federal or state workplace safety rules were violated, bureau chief Regina Cullen and department spokesman Neal O’Briant said.
“We’re not determining legal fault,” O’Briant said. “We’re determining whether there were any violations of the occupational safety and health standards.”
Investigators photographed the site, collected physical evidence and interviewed employees and management in an effort to determine the accident’s cause. O’Briant said investigations take an average of three to four months to complete. State law requires results to be available six months after a fatal workplace accident.
Employers receive a citation for each violation and can be fined up to $7,000 per instance. O’Briant said there was no indication Tuesday whether any violations had occurred.
Seven North Carolina workers died from contact with electricity between Jan. 1, 2012 and Sept. 30, 2014, according to state Department of Labor figures.
Signs at the facility indicate Rankin Farms is a contractor for Mountaire Farms, a Millsboro, Delaware-based chicken grower with extensive poultry farming and feed milling operations in southeastern North Carolina.
Rankin Farms was incorporated in February 2005, according to the N.C. Department of the Secretary of State. A Tuesday phone message left for owner and registered agent Nathaniel D. Rankin was not returned in time for this story.
Reach Editor Corey Friedman at 910-817-2670 and follow him on Twitter @corey_friedman.