Exclusive: Police say Central Valley poultry plant unsafe after second death in a year

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The first police officers on the scene of a worker death in late February at Pitman Family Farms reported that it was not surprising the 19-year-old man was run over and killed by a heavy-duty truck, given the noise, lack of lighting and lack of reflective safety gear for night-shift employees.

Pitman employee Jose Abrego was killed after he was run over by a truck that was being moved by another employee around the time Abrego was assigned to wash the vehicle. The police report indicates he might have been killed when his clothing became hooked on a broken truck fender as he tried to move away. According to the report, he was run over in an area where trucks and attached trailers are in movement, load and unload, and are relocated to make room for forklift operations.

“There did not seem to be much safety precautions put in place or enforced to prevent this type of incident,” the Sanger Police Department report said. “With the loud noises of the machinery and poorly lit work space, it made sense to me as to why (the employee driving the truck) did not see or hear Abrego.”

The police report and footage details hazardous working conditions and worker nervousness at Pitman’s poultry facility in Sanger, with narrow passages in the loading and unloading area where workers are in close contact with trucks and forklifts, “zero lighting” around moving vehicles, nervous witnesses who hesitated to cooperate, with some openly expressing fears of retaliation against undocumented workers. Those fears were captured in police recordings and documents.

The Fresno Bee obtained the police report, photos and body camera footage of the workplace death through a California Public Records Act request.

It was the second death at the family-owned poultry processing plant in less than a year at Pitman Family Farms — a company known for its humanely-raised brand of poultry, Mary’s Chickens. Last May, a 66-year-old employee drowned in a chicken waste pit at the facility.

The two workplace fatalities are under investigation by state health and safety regulators.

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At the time of his death, Abrego was assigned to wash the semi-truck, which appeared to have dozens of crates that hold live poultry on its bed, according to the police report. Then, another worker started driving the truck without realizing Abrego was in front of the wheels, the report said. It’s not immediately clear why Abrego was standing directly in front of the wheels at the time of the incident, police noted. Abrego was crushed by the truck and first responders pronounced him dead at 12:07 a.m.

There have been at least four workplace-related deaths, including Abrego, in addition to hundreds of injuries, at Pitman’s processing plant, grain mill and ranches over the past decade, an earlier analysis by The Fresno Bee of public federal data and state records shows.

Abrego’s death occurred less than two weeks after The Bee published an investigation into workplace conditions at Pitman Family Farms that highlighted the deaths and injuries. Former and current workers told The Bee that the work is grueling and that they don’t receive enough training for the sharp tools and heavy machinery used to process poultry in what federal workplace safety regulators call a hazardous industry.

Labor leaders told The Bee for this story that Abrego’s death was “preventable” and likely wouldn’t have occurred if adequate safety protocols and union protections were in place at the non-unionized company.

Company executives have declined comment in the past for previous Bee stories about problematic worker safety at Pitman facilities. For this latest story, company executives did not respond to specific questions from The Bee sent via email related to the findings in the police report. Pitman Farms owner David Pitman would only provide a prepared statement.

“We are devastated by this tragic accident, and remain dedicated to supporting Jose Abrego’s family and his co-workers through this difficult time,” Pitman said. “I am committed to the health and well-being of his family, our work team, and the families we serve.”

Details from Sanger police report, bodycam footage

Police body camera footage obtained by The Bee shows an emotional, almost chaotic scene after the fatality. One employee cried in the arms of a colleague as others tried to answer police questions. Some appeared fearful to talk with police, choosing not to give their names. At one point, camera footage shows a duck that escaped from the poultry killing area wandering into the scene.

Pitman employees in the outside area were wearing dark clothing without reflective patches or materials, the police report noted. It appears from the footage that Abrego and some other outdoor night shift workers were wearing blue smocks, a type of protective clothing item suggested for indoor poultry processing work.

Police also noted the area was poorly lit around moving vehicles and forklifts and “extremely loud” due to the nearby machinery.

When asked why the area was so dark, a manager told police “it was to prevent the live birds from becoming excited.”

Police also were concerned with a broken piece of equipment on the vehicle that Abrego was washing. A patch of his blue work smock “may have been caught on the broken rear quarter fender tube hanger which may have prevented Abrego from being able to move out of the way of harm,” the police report noted. (A quarter fender is a piece of equipment to protect the vehicle from mud, rocks, and other debris from being thrown into the air by the tires, according to a trucking sales site.)

“Abrego may have had a better chance of survival if the quarter fender tube hanger had been repaired as it would have prevented Abrego from coming into direct contact with the tire of the truck,” the police report said.

Police note employee fears of retaliation

The Sanger police bodycam footage and police report show some Pitman workers were afraid to talk to police about what they witnessed from the incident, despite officers’ assurances that they weren’t in trouble because it wasn’t a crime scene.

“This isn’t a criminal report. Nobody’s in trouble, nobody’s being prosecuted. This is being looked at as an accident,” the officer said to workers, as captured in the footage.

A forklift operator who witnessed the incident (and was wearing a reflective vest), explained to the officer that he tried to shout at the driver that Abrego was still near the truck, but he became nervous when he noticed the police officer’s body camera and then wouldn’t give his name on camera. “I don’t want to be in the middle of anything,” he said. “I’m shaking, to be honest. I’m crazy shaking.”

“Based on (his) actions and response, I believe he is afraid of speaking up,” the reporting officer noted in the report.

The worker who was driving the semi-truck “was shaking and his face was pale white,” according to the police report. The employee is responsible for moving the trucks with attached trailers on the property so the forklift operators can unload the trucks, the report said. He explained to police in Spanish that he honked the truck as a warning that he was going to move it. He told police he did see Abrego in the course of his duties before the accident, but did not see him just before or during the incident, according to the report.

Another worker who asked police if she could remain anonymous said Pitman workers fear retaliation.

“Most of the employees are undocumented citizens, and they are afraid to say anything,” the police report said. “If they do say anything, they are immediately fired from their job and have no way to dispute this because they were hired illegally by Pittman [sic] Family Farms.”

The police report continued: “This employee added that Pittman [sic] Family Farms does this to cut corners so they can save money in order to create more profit. Lastly, they claimed this has been a common practice of Pittman [sic] Family Farms for many years leading people to lose hope in any type of change. This employee believes Jose Abrego may still be alive if the company had been vigilant in creating safer work conditions as well as maintaining equipment.”

The state’s investigation into the fatality can take up to six months to complete.