Factory Cancels Shifts After Death

SAUGUS — A plastics factory where a Newhall man was killed on the job Friday afternoon canceled its weekend shifts and will not resume work until Monday, the president of the company said.

Gary Wolling, 34, was running a device used to dry plastic at Keysor-Century Corp. when he was dragged into the machinery, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Larry Gump. There were no witnesses to the accident but several workers rushed to Wolling’s station when they heard the whine of grinding gears.

By then Wolling’s body had been ripped apart and crushed.

Howard Hill, president of the company, said that contrary to initial reports, the machinery Wolling was operating did not explode at the time of the accident.

He said he shut down the plant, at 26000 Springbrook Ave., to investigate the accident and to give the firm’s 100 employees a chance to grieve. Hill said Wolling had been employed at the plant about three months.

“It is very distressing when this kind of thing happens,” he said. “It was a tragic accident, just one of those freak kind of things.”

Cal/OSHA officials arrived at the site Friday to begin investigating Wolling’s death. Agency officials could not be reached Saturday.

One of the principals of the family-owned corporation is former state Assemblyman Jim Keysor, who represented the northeast San Fernando Valley between 1970 and 1978. He could not be reached for comment Saturday.

Hill said that this was the first fatal accident at the factory since the Keysor family bought it in 1957.

There have been at least two fires at the plant, however, including a chemical fire 10 years ago that caused more than 50 homes to be evacuated and seven employees to be taken to the hospital. Also, the corporation was fined by the South Coast Air Quality Management District in 1985 for releasing into the air 145 pounds of vinyl chloride, a cancer-causing substance.