Man sees machine rip teen apart

2005-10-19 23:01

Edna Isaacs

Wolseley - A 16-year-old farmworker died a horrible death after being "swallowed" by a baling machine six days after he had started at the farm.

Another worker, who saw the machine ripping apart Ricardo Mowries, has been having trouble sleeping since the accident.

Jerome Geduld of the De Liefde farm near Wolseley was driving the baling machine in which Mowries's clothes got entangled about 17:20 on Monday.

Mowries was decapitated, his right arm was broken and his right leg ripped off.

Geduld said: "Ricardo was feeding the chaff into the machine and his jacket got caught in the machinery. His body was ripped apart within half a minute.

"It happened so quickly. My body was in shock and I was disorientated. It didn't know where I was."

Geduld descibed the teenager as a "good worker", saying young workers didn't normally work with such big machinery.

'They told me my child had died'

Ricardo's mother, Ragel Mowries, said she was working in the vineyard when she and other workers heard a loud bang.

"Two workers came running. I told the others: but there should be three of them.

"I walked up to them and asked what had happened. They told me my child had died.

"I wanted to go to him, but Jerome said he was too badly injured; I should stay away.

"I heard that his head was lying 12 metres from the machine. I keep seeing images of how he died."

Mowries said her son had asked the manager for a job because she couldn't afford to keep him in school after Grade 7.

"It was only his sixth day at work. I'm heartbroken, but I must accept it."

Albertus Olivier, organiser of the Food and Allied Workers Union in the Witzenberg district, said: "It is against the labour laws to allow such a young child to do such hard work.

Youth 'didn't operate the baler'

"Such a dangerous machine must be operated by an experienced person."

Flip Viljoen, the farm manager, said through his lawyer, Nico le Roux, that the boy "knew exactly what he should do".

"He was merely a helper and didn't operate the machine."

Le Roux said the case was being investigated by the labour department and the police.

"It was a sad accident and we are supporting his family."

- Die Burger