He has worked at the steel rolling mill for thirty years.
Tips
usage
zhá is the metalworking reading: passing hot metal between rollers. It appears in 轧钢 (to roll steel), 轧钢厂 (rolling mill), 冷轧 (cold-rolled). For running something over, use yà.
车 on the left is the vehicle radical, simplified from 車, a top-down picture of a cart with wheels and axle. It supplies the meaning of 轧 directly: to crush is to roll a heavy wheeled thing over something. Same family: 转 to turn, 输 to transport.
乚 on the right is a variant of 乙, supplying the sound yǐ which shifted to yà. The single curved stroke also reads visually like the long sweep of a wheel pressing down and rolling forward.
