A cleaning subcontractor died last week of injuries sustained in an accident at the Georgia-Pacific paper mill in Cedar Springs.

Ernest Robertson, 51, of Jacksonville, Fla., died Monday night, June 18, at Southeast Alabama Medical Center after he was injured that afternoon by a high-pressure cleaning device he was operating.

Celia Bostwick, spokesperson for Georgia-Pacific, said Robertson had been using a high-pressure hose to clean a clogged drain during a maintenance outage at the mill.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the accident.

The Cedar Springs plant has logged 591,000 work hours with only three recordable injuries this year, Bostwick said. So far this year, the plant has an OSHA Incidence Rate (OIR) of 1.01, under the industry standard of 4.4.

"The safety and welfare of all who work at the mill is our highest priority," Bostwick said.