Hornaday Manufacturing, (Carol Bryant, Central Nebraska Today)
GRAND ISLAND – A Feb. 25 response to a motion to dismiss a lawsuit in Hall County District Court is the latest development concerning a Grand Island woman killed in an explosion at Hornady Manufacturing location west of Grand Island.
Michaela Alvarez filed the lawsuit in November 2024 concerning the death of Adriana Alvarez.
The lawsuit is seeking more than $50,000 and is requesting a lawsuit.
Adriana Alvarez was killed in an explosion on Oct. 13, 2023, “when she was instructed to hand mix dangerous primer compound for ammunition at a primer mixing facility located” near Wood River. The facility is west of Grand Island on Old Potash Highway.
The primer “is an explosive that ignites which then forces a bullet down the barrel of a gun. Mrs. Alvarez’s job was to operate the mixing process of the primer compound at the facility using commercial machinery,” according to a Feb. 25 document filed by Alvarez.
The process “required the operator to take a spatula, re-enter the room with the mixer, touch the sides of the mixer stand with the spatula to dissipate potential static, and use the spatula ‘to remove the Priming Compound from the mixer blade and the sides of the bowl.’ “
The lawsuit was filed against Hornady Manufacturing; Platte Valley Energetics, a division of Hornady Manufacturing; Training and Consulting in San Antonio, Texas; and New Lachaussee in Belgium. Adriana Alvarez was jointly employed by Hornady Manufacturing and Platte Valley Energetics, according to a court document filed on behalf of Michaela Alvarez, who is the special administrator for Adriana Alvarez’s estate.
Hornady Manufacturing and Platte Valley Energetics filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on Jan. 10, 2025, stating that “the Worker’s Compensation Court has exclusive jurisdiction over this incident.” The motion to dismiss states that Hall County District Court “lacks subject matter jurisdiction.”
A response regarding Hornady’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit was filed on behalf of Michaela Alvarez on Feb. 25. The response states that the defendants were “negligent in developing, maintaining, and instructing on a process requiring operators to manually manipulate the explosive primer compound.” The Feb. 25 response asks the court to deny Hornady Manufacturing’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
The lawsuit said that the mixing “process unreasonably, negligently and dangerously exposed the operator to a lethal explosion hazard at least three times by instructing the operator to take a spatula and manipulate the explosive compound while the operator is in the room and standing over the explosive compound mix.”
According to the 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.”
Editor’s Note: This article was amended to correct a misidentification of Michaela Alvarez. Central Nebraska Today.com strives for accuracy and regrets this error.
