Hornaday Manufacturing, (Carol Bryant, Central Nebraska Today)
GRAND ISLAND – A lawsuit regarding a Grand Island woman killed in a 2023 explosion at Hornady Manufacturing was filed April 28 in U.S. District Court in Lincoln.
Adriana Alvarez, 32, was killed in an explosion on Oct. 13, 2023. The explosion occurred at Hornady’s west location on Old Potash Highway.
Michaela Alvarez filed the federal lawsuit concerning the death of their wife.
Defendants named in the lawsuit are Hornady Manufacturing; New Lachaussee in Belgium; Platte Valley Energetics, A division of Hornady Manufacturing; and Training and Consulting LLC in San Antonio, Texas.
The lawsuit had been filed in Hall County District Court.
Adriana Alvarez was killed in an explosion “when she was instructed to hand mix dangerous primer compound for ammunition at a primer mixing facility located” west of Grand Island on Old Potash Highway, according to the Hall County District Court lawsuit.
According to the Hall County District Court lawsuit, OSHA investigated the explosion. “While OSHA did not issue a citation for failing to protect Adriana Alvarez, it recommended that Defendant Hornady ‘explore options to further automate the process to mitigate human interaction during the mixing and equipment cleaning process.’” OSHA and Hornady Manufacturing reached an agreement where Hornady Manufacturing “would provide OSHA with a revised Standard Operating Procedure for the mixing of priming compound that would require minimal exposure to operators during the mixing process.”
