Morton Salt Firm, Workers Charged in Fatality : Courts: An employee was crushed in storage bin accident. County prosecutors say the company, manager and foreman had failed to take safety precautions.

Responding to the death of a worker crushed under tons of salt during a storage bin cave-in, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office Wednesday charged Morton International Inc. and two of its employees with involuntary manslaughter and violating the Corporate Criminal Liability Act.

Prosecutors alleged in a complaint filed in Los Angeles Municipal Court that Morton, along with the plant manager and foreman at its Long Beach salt processing plant, failed to take proper safety precautions against “serious concealed dangers” in a storage bin that the victim and a co-worker were ordered to clean last May.

Jorge Torres, 25, of Wilmington was killed after the pile of salt he was standing on collapsed. He was buried near the bottom of the bin, which was holding 50 to 60 tons of salt.

The other worker, Nick Rico, 28, also of Wilmington, was buried partly by salt and managed to escape through a side entrance. He still works for the company.

Fred Macksoud, the deputy district attorney in charge of the case, said the chief safety problem was that the workers did not have either a safe platform to work on or proper safety harnesses. Instead, he said, the two workers were supported only by the salt they were standing on and which they were loosening with shovels, picks and a jackhammer.

It is the first time that county prosecutors have used the Corporate Criminal Liability Act. It was signed into law in 1989 to deter corporate wrongdoing and has been rarely employed in the state.

Along with the two felony counts, all of the defendants were charged with seven misdemeanor safety violations of the state Labor Code.

Macksoud said the plant manager, Roger Keith Morgan, 48, of Cypress, and the foreman, Roy Allen Yount, 47, of Lakewood, face up to four years in prison and fines of $70,000.

He said Morton--a Chicago-based company that is well-known for its packaged salt but also makes chemicals and auto air bags--faces a fine of up to $1 million.

The local Morton plant, located near the Port of Long Beach, employs 26 workers.

A spokeswoman for Morton, Nancy Hobor, said the company has reviewed the accident and believes it took proper safety precautions.

In a statement, she said, “The decision of the Los Angeles County district attorney to characterize as criminal in nature the tragic and accidental death of one of our employees last May is totally unwarranted.”

Hobor added that Morton has cooperated fully with investigations by the district attorney’s office and the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, which referred the case to county prosecutors.

She said that “neither the company nor its facility managers were in any way criminally at fault for the fatal accident. We deeply regret this unjustified charge.”

Separate from the district attorney’s complaint, Morton is also contesting eight safety citations lodged by Cal/OSHA in connection with the fatal accident. Along with a charge related to the alleged lack of a proper platform, the most serious citations accuse the company of such other confined space violations as failing to provide a safe entrance and exit or to make provisions for a rescue.

In all, Cal/OSHA is seeking $52,500 in penalties.