LUMBERTON — An investigation continues into the death of a Robeson County woman at a job site in Columbia, S.C.
The South Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating Tuesday’s death of Diane M. Smith, said Lesia Kudelka, a spokesperson for the agency. Investigators will be looking for “any OSHA violations that may have in any way contributed to the incident,” she said.
“Investigations generally take at least eight weeks,” Kudelka said.
Smith, 49, died of traumatic asphyxiation, Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said Thursday. He called it an accident.
According to information released Wednesday by Watts, Smith “was working on scissor lift at a job site when she was entrapped between the ceiling and the railing of the lift” at Stevenson Correctional Institution, which is located at 4546 Broad River Road.
According to the S.C. Department of Corrections website, the facility “houses general population inmates, a habilitation unit for mentally retarded inmates, a special management unit, and operates a 90-day shock incarceration program for male offenders between the ages of 17 and 29 who are court-ordered by a sentencing judge.”
The coroner’s office’s information indicated Smith lived on Wisper Lane in Lumberton. Her death notice in Thursday’s edition of The Robesonian indicated Smith lived in Pembroke.