Serious Industrial Accident At Peyton's

A man is in critical condition at Erlanger and co-workers say he was seriously hurt on the job. Phone calls came into our newsroom about an accident at Peyton's Southeastern in Cleveland.We started checking on the accident and Peyton's history.

The shipping and receiving warehouse has a relatively clean history with OSHA. We looked at the last 15 years and found only one inspection. But co-workers tell us on Tuesday a crane crushed Alan Green.

Peyton's forklift operator Carey Russell vividly remembers Tuesday's accident."Where we work at we have a big door we go through. It goes to other doors. It was right there, we have a big door we go through. It was right there in front of our department," Russell said.

We're told by Russell and other employees a crane crushed the 46 year old Green. It's also clear time ticked away for Green during this industrial accident. Russell explained, "It was like two thirty I guess about the time it happened. Then they got here with the stretcher. I think it was about three thirty when we were going on break. That's when they were carrying him out. Then Life Force didn't get here until after we came back from break, probably about four o'clock."

Peyton's is a very large warehouse off the Cleveland by-pass which employs close to one thousand people. It serves as a storage location for Kroger's. We contacted Peyton's General Manager Mark Nabbefeld by phone. And he said to us, "We did have an incident but we don't talk about things that happen to employees." He turned us over to the Corporate Affairs Division.

Kroger's spokesman Brandon Cull says the company takes this very seriously and it will follow all state and federal regulations.

We contacted TOSHA and learned the accident had not been reported. But TOSHA says companies are only required to report fatalities or cases where three or more people are injured.

Russell reflected on her friend who suffered a very serious injury. "He was maintenance, working on the machines, well the crane. It controls something totally different from what I do. I worked with him, yeah. He's been in maintenance since I've been here. He's a good guy."

We also spoke with Alan Green's wife. She says he has worked at Peyton's for 26 years and will have a VERY LONG road to recovery.

As for TOSHA's one inspection of Peyton's over the last 15 years happened in December of 2001. It started from a complaint and was opened and closed on the same day. The business was not found in violation.