Father-of-three Craig Tanner has been named as the man killed after being trapped in an ink vat in the DIC factory in Auburn, in an accident which left his two colleagues with multiple leg fractures.
Workplace investigators are now trying to work out what happened, with early reports suggesting the giant mixing blade was turned on while the trio were inside cleaning the vat.
DIC is the country’s biggest ink supplier, its Auburn site is its main manufacturing plant in the country. Phillip Roy, operations manager at DIC would not comment to ProPrint on any impact on ink supply resulting from the accident and the investigation.
The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) is also conducting its own onsite investigation. One of the men is a member with the union.
[Related: Worker dead at DIC ink factory]
A spokesperson for the AMWU says, “We started investigating last week and we are looking further into it this week. It was a tragic incident and hopefully we can prevent it from happening again”.
The 42-year-old contractor from Engadine had been cleaning the ink vat on Thursday morning when he and the two other men apparently were trapped by the moving blade. The other men were rescued by emergency services in a complex operation lasting several hours and taken to Westmead Hospital with multiple leg injuries, while Tanner tragically passed away at the scene despite the efforts of multiple emergency service personnel.
The Tanner family foundation, an online pledge fundraiser, has been established to assist Tanner’s wife Rachel and their three children, aged 7 and under. The page has already raised $41,000 as of this morning, beating its original target of $30,000.
DIC (formerly known as Dainippon Ink & Chemicals) is one of the world’s biggest ink companies. It is Australia’s largest ink manufacturer, producing inks for all sectors of the industry from its Auburn site.
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