By LEONARD GRAY – Managing Editor

LAPLACE – A Hammond man died Tuesday at Bayou Steel in an accident during the end of a 12-hour shift.

Ed Theriot, 51, of Hammond, who has worked for more than 19 years at the LaPlace steel mill, was a billet inspector for semi-finished product, according to Al Pulliam, vice-president for human and technical resources.

Pulliam said that Theriot was working toward the end of his 6 p.m.-to-6 a.m. shift, when at 3:30 a.m., he was caught between the billet transfer car and the billet yard cooling bed at the plant.

The impact nearly sliced off his legs and caused internal organ damage and significant blood loss, Pulliam said.

“It was the blood loss is what did it,” Pulliam added.

Theriot was rushed to River Parishes Hospital while the plant management notified his family and also informed Bayou Steel upper management and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The St. John Parish Sheriff’s Office was not notified at the time of the accident, Capt. Michael Tregre said.

At the hospital, Theriot endured emergency surgery and survived 14 hours before succumbing to his injuries that afternoon.

“It was a tough day for all of us here,” Pulliam recalled.

An investigation into the cause of the accident continues and Pulliam said, “It’s too preliminary to speculate about exactly what happened.”

It was the first fatal accident at the LaPlace steel mill since 1986, according to Pulliam.

Theriot worked for Bayou Steel from 1981 to December 2000 and again from February 2004.

He leaves a wife, two children and grandchildren.