Worker, 23, Killed by Falling Equipment

A Palmdale man was killed when a piece of steel equipment he was installing fell on him, police said Tuesday.

Michael W. McNitt, 23, was bolting a 300-pound steel ring to a pipe-molding machine Monday at 3:20 p.m. when the ring fell off the forklift that was holding it, said Dan Stracner, spokesman for Ameron, Inc., the victim’s employer.

The ring fell directly onto McNitt and he was pronounced dead at the scene from massive head injuries, a coroner’s investigator said.

The accident occurred at Ameron’s new Palmdale plant, open since June. McNitt joined the company, which manufactures concrete water and sewer pipes, when the plant opened, Stracner said.

“This is a routine equipment change that’s done many, many times when you’re making pipe,” Stracner said. He said McNitt had been trained in the installation and use of the equipment by the machine’s manufacturer. “As far as we know, it was being used as it was supposed to be used,” the spokesman said.

McNitt, who was single, had been wearing a hard hat, but it fell off in the accident, Stracner said.

Officials from the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration are investigating the accident, Stracner said.