PERRYVILLE, Mo. — In February 2023, an employee for a large food manufacturer was cleaning a machine at a southern Illinois factory when his right hand was sucked in by two metal rollers, crushing three fingers that were later amputated.

Nineteen months later in Perryville, a plant employee for the same company was replacing a splash guard on a rotating cooker when another worker came back from a break and activated the machine. The cooker began rotating, catching the employee’s arm and severing it near his shoulder.

Then, in June this year, at that same Perryville plant, an employee became stuck in one of the factory’s industrial-sized ovens. He was dead by the time first responders could get to him, police said.

The death of Nicolas Lopez Gomez, 38, remains under investigation by the

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