In a morbid bout of life imitates art, a 29 year old New Jersey employee died Wednesday at a chocolate processing plant after falling headlong into a giant vat of hot cocoa. According to Slashfilm.com (http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/07/09/a-real-life-augustus-gloop-dies-in-chocolate-factory-accident/), who in turn cites CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/09/new.jersey.chocolate.death/) , a man named Vincent Smith II was said to be loading fresh chocolate into the vat from a plank some 9 feet above. When he slipped and fell, Smith landed in an 8 foot deep, 14 foot long, 6 foot wide channel of hot chocolate, slamming his head on a giant stirring mechanism known as the vat agitator. Fellow workers immediately raced to turn off the machine, but it was unfortunately too late. While this is a true tragedy, and is far from a laughing matter – one can’t help but think of the scene in the 1971 classic kids film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, where a kid named Augustus Gloop, against the heeding of Wonka himself, falls into a vast river of fresh chocolate. Our thoughts go out to Smith’s family and friends.
