Wednesday, January 3, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
13
Workplace fatalities: Grisly deatp at a Klamatp Falls mill
By Andrew Theen
The Oregonian/OregonLive
PORTLAND (AP) —
Frankie Crispen Jr. had a lot
to look forward to this past
November. He was set to take
the rigorous exam that could
elevate him to journeyman
electrician after four years as
an apprentice. Thanksgiving
came the day after the state
test, then it would be time to
get serious about Christmas
shopping.
On his final break the
night of November 17 at the
Columbia Forest Products
mill in Klamath Falls, Crispen
texted his fiancée Ashley
Albers, as he always did,
teasing out the answers to his
11-year-old, soon-to-be step-
daughter’s math homework.
About an hour later, he
responded to a call for an
electrician over the intercom
at the mill that sits on the
banks of the Klamath River.
He was never seen alive
again.
The 28-year-old’s death
in the final hours of a swing
shift made him Oregon’s
68th workplace fatality of
2017, according to prelimi-
nary figures from the state’s
Occupational Safety and
Health Administration. At
least six more people have
died on the job since Crispen
fell into a vat of scalding liq-
uid that November night.
More than half the
estimated 74 workplace
fatalities in 2017 thus far
occurred from natural causes,
according to state estimates.
Employees also died in car
crashes and workplace acci-
dents, data show.
State safety leaders say
they don’t place much signif-
icance on single-year tallies
because workplace fatalities
have dropped significantly
over time. In the private sec-
tor, the rate has plunged from
11.1 deaths or injuries for
every 100 full-time work-
ers in 1988 to roughly 3.7 in
2015, the most recent data
available. Though construc-
tion and logging remain the
most deadly sectors, safety
measures designed to reduce
falls have resulted in fewer
accidents.
The number of compensa-
ble deaths, those eligible for
workers’ compensation insur-
ance benefits, has declined
as well. The annual figure
has hovered near 30 each of
the past five years in Oregon,
and claims accepted in 2017
to date appear headed on the
same trajectory.
Michael Wood, the state’s
administrator for workplace
health and safety programs,
said the stories behind dozens
of deaths go untold each year.
Despite significant advance-
ments in workplace safety
in the past two decades and
a lower fatality rate despite
a significantly larger work-
force, he worries that death
rates are merely leveling off
“at best.”
“People die in this state
on the job,” Wood said,
“and they die unnecessarily
from things we know how to
prevent.”
Crispen’s grisly death
shocked friends, family and
colleagues in Klamath Falls,
a community of 21,500
just north of the Oregon-
California border. There’s no
criminal inquiry, but the inci-
dent is under investigation
by the state’s Occupational
Safety
and
Health
Administration. Though all
workplace fatalities must be
reported to the state within
eight hours, the agency does
not investigate all deaths.
The agency declined to com-
ment on Crispin’s case, other
than to say it would release a
report on its findings within
six months.
The mill, one of two
Columbia Forest Products
locations in Oregon, special-
izes in hardwood plywood
manufacturing. In a state-
ment, the company said it
was “deeply saddened by
the untimely death” and
fully cooperating with the
investigation.
The Greensboro, North
Carolina-based company has
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clear something was horribly
wrong.
The dispatcher had sum-
moned emergency workers
to “a possible confined space
rescue” on the back side of
the 18-acre mill on U.S. 97.
Fire crews were the first to
arrive, followed by Klamath
County sheriff ’s deputies
at 11:06 p.m. By that time,
Sheriff Chris Kaber said in an
email, Crispen “had not been
seen for a couple of hours.”
Albers started calling
and texting when Crispen
didn’t arrive home at his nor-
mal time, but her calls went
straight to voicemail. She
wondered whether he might
have picked up an extra shift,
something he did on occasion
to make extra cash.
By 3 a.m. she was “ter-
rified” and drove to the
mill. She spotted their Ford
Mustang in the parking lot.
Crispen’s phone charger and
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more than 2,000 employees in
the U.S. and Canada and bills
itself as the largest manufac-
turer of hardwood plywood
and hardwood veneer prod-
ucts in North America. The
Klamath Falls plant opened
in 1999.
Compounding the heart-
ache of a life cut short,
Crispen’s family is struggling
with the lack of information.
His mother, Kay Moyette,
said she’s been waiting to
hear more about the investi-
gation, but other than a brief
story in the Klamath Falls
newspaper, there’s been no
media coverage or significant
updates from authorities.
“It was like some lives
have value and some don’t,”
said Marc Waits, Crispen’s
brother.
Crispen usually got home
from work at 10:45 p.m.,
some 15 minutes after clock-
ing out.
By 10:43 p.m. on Nov. 17,
according to 911 calls, it was
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