Eustaquio Paraniaque Jr. Killed in Work Accident in Fort Hood, TX

Killeen, TX — March 6, 2025, Eustaquio Paraniaque Jr. was fatally injured after a work accident that happened at Fort Hood.

An initial incident summary from OSHA says that the accident happened at the Clabber Creek Range at Fort Hood.

According to OSHA, 59-year-old Eustaquio Paraniaque Jr. was apparently working on a target lift machine at the time. the lift machine arms came down while doing so, pinning Eustaquio Paraniaque Jr. Eustaquio Paraniaque Jr. reportedly died as a result.

OSHA listed four alleged “serious” violation citations in their report as well as a recommended penalty. Additional details are unavailable.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

I just want to emphasize that I don’t have any information about what happened here beyond the public OSHA statements. That said, some of the details reminded me of a work accident fatality I handled a while back involving a worker being caught in machinery. I think it’s an example worth going over to show people why knowing the full story is so crucial in these situations.

In that particular case, a worker at a chicken plant got caught in a large meat processing machine. OSHA didn’t really provide much insight, so we conducted independent investigations into the specifics of what went wrong.

It turned out that an employee at the meat processing plant was tasked with taking what was basically a stick, climbing into this giant shredder, and degunking the machinery. There wasn’t a proper lockout/tagout procedure in place, and a coworker powered on the machine while the victim was still inside.

Had the family just left everything up to OSHA to issue citations and move on, they may not have heard the full story of what happened to their loved one. Grim as the details ended up being, families deserve to know the truth.

As I said, that’s just an example from one of the many deadly work accident cases I’ve handled. The circumstances surrounding this accident may be entirely different. But one thing remains the same between every fatal work accident I’ve handled: families deserve answers. It remains to be seen if OSHA took the time to get more information than just the bare minimum they needed for their own purposes.