Wrongful Death Lawsuit Jurors Tour Accident Site

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Jurors in a wrongful death lawsuit toured the facility yesterday where a teenager died when he was crushed by a recycling paper and cardboard baler. Jordan Dalrymple was on his next-to-last day on the job at Jefferson County Landfill and Recycling Center in Pine Bluff when he was trying to clear a jammed conveyor belt on the baler and fell into the hopper where the machine's compactor crushed him.

Plaintiff attorneys are suing the machine's manufacturer as well as its distributor claiming the baler equipped with sufficient safety devices such as handrails and satisfactory power controls. Jordan's fall activated the a sensor on the baler which, in turn, started the device's compacting ram.

According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:

“I heard a holler,” said Ron Via, an employee at the recycling center who testified Tuesday. “I looked down in the machine and saw him laying on his back.”

Via shut off the baler, but it was too late. Emergency workers pulled Jordan Dalrymple’s body from the machine about two hours later. A summer employee, Jordan Dalrymple died on a Thursday, the day before his last scheduled day of work at the recycling center. According to a published report after his death, Jordan Dalrymple was about to move to Jonesboro and attend Arkansas State University.