Mississippi Teen Dies at Poultry Processing Plant While Operating Equipment

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A county official reported that a 16-year-old teen worker at a poultry processing facility in Mississippi died on Friday.

On Friday, a 16-year-old teen died while operating machinery at a poultry facility in Mississippi, according to officials.

The incident occurred at the Mar-Jac Poultry facility in Hattiesburg, a city located approximately 90 miles southeast of Jackson. Hattiesburg is in the county of Forrest.

Mississippi Teen Dies in Poultry Processing Plant Accident

On Wednesday morning, Forrest County Coroner Butch Benedict verified to CBS News preliminary details about the incident, including the boy's age and the general circumstances surrounding his demise.

The teen was not identified by Benedict. He stated that a pathologist would ascertain the definitive cause of death after analyzing the autopsy results, which he believed were conducted on Tuesday. Benedict added that the death was likely due to trauma. A formal report is anticipated within a few days.

NBC affiliate WDAM reported that Guatemalan media have identified the teen as Duvan Pérez and that he moved to Mississippi from Huispache. According to its website, Mar-Jac Poultry is a poultry production enterprise headquartered in Gainesville, Georgia.

The facility in Hattiesburg processes and slaughters poultry, according to the US Food and Inspection Service, which notes that the facility obtained its federal inspection grant in April 2022.

The teenager who died last week was a sanitation worker at the facility, according to a news release obtained by CBS News from Mar-Jac Poultry. According to the company, he perished on Friday evening as a result of injuries sustained in an accident while performing sanitation duties.

Mar-Jac Poultry stated that it is cooperating with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's investigation into the boy's demise, and that "any issues identified by the investigation will be promptly addressed."

A spokesperson for the Labor Department told CBS News that both OSHA and the Wage and Hour Division, which is responsible for enforcing federal labor laws, have opened investigations into the Mar-Jac Poultry facility in Hattiesburg.

The department has no additional information to provide at this time, according to the spokesperson.

Federal child labor laws prohibit anyone under the age of 18 from working in slaughterhouses and meatpacking facilities, as well as operating or cleaning any power-driven equipment related to this industry, as these jobs are deemed too dangerous for juveniles.

Teens Are Prohibited to Operate Meat Processing Equipment

According to a fact sheet issued by the US Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, minors are prohibited from operating "power-driven meat processing machines, such as meat slicers, saws, and meat choppers, wherever used (including restaurants and delicatessens)" and from "cleaning such equipment, including the hand-washing of the disassembled machine parts."

The number of child labor violations in the United States has increased by 283% since 2015, according to a recent report from the Department of Labor. These findings emerged as more than a dozen state legislatures loosened restrictions on juvenile labor.

According to authorities in Forrest County, the Hattiesburg Police Department responded to an incident at Mar-Jac Poultry. The police department was contacted for additional information, but no response has yet been received.

CNN was informed by deputy Forrest County coroner Lisa Klem that the teen perished at Mar-Jac Poultry in Hattiesburg, approximately 100 miles southeast of Jackson. Klem stated that an autopsy was performed, but the results have not been made public.

In an emailed statement to CNN, Mar-Jac Poultry attributed the teen's death to injuries sustained during a "accident."

Per USA Today, this is the third fatality at Mar-Jac in the last three years. According to Hattiesburg police, Joel Velasco Toto, 33, perished in 2020 after he and another person were "playing with apparatus in the facility." Bobby Butler, aged 48, passed away in June 2021 due to injuries sustained in an incident involving large equipment.