Saw the following article, “Killed in freak wine accident“. Essentially a worker fell into a winery hopper that has a mixing arm (see picture in the article) and got his head trapped.
Are such accidents freak accidents? Based on Dictionary.com, Freak means, “a sudden and apparently causeless change or turn of events, the mind, etc.; an apparently capricious notion, occurrence, etc.: That kind of sudden storm is a freak.”
I certainly don’t think the accident was causeless. Why did he fall? Was the ground slippery because of poor housekeeping? Was he overworked? Was the lighting inadequate? Could barriers be installed around the hopper? Was he in slippery shoes? Could the machine be guarded (at least partially) to reduce likelihood of such an accident? There are extremely few freak accidents…