The owner of a trucking company says that he asked a man he knew through his brother to work on a dump truck to get it working for the summer season. The truck apparently was parked at the home of mother of the trucking company owner in Longview, Texas.
It is not clear what was wrong with the truck. The owner says that the unit had been down during the winter. Emergency crews were called to where the truck was parked shortly after Noon on Wednesday. The mechanic was found pinned between the massive bed on the dump truck and its cab.
Firefighters pulled out the Jaws of Life and used other measures to rescue the man from between the bed and the cab. Authorities say that the mechanic was breathing and able to speak as he was being transported from the accident site. However, emergency personnel say that the man suffered potentially life-threatening injuries. The full nature and extent of the injuries are not clear. If the mechanic survives, the trucking company owner is hoping that the mechanic was not paralyzed in the work-related accident.
Officials say that it appears the hydraulics failed when a hose broke, allowing the massive bed to come down, crushing the mechanic. The fire marshal says that it does not appear any safety measures were in place to secure the bed while the mechanic worked on the dump truck.
People in many different types of industries work with heavy equipment. Accidents related to heavy vehicles may often seem to involve situations where a worker is struck by a truck while working at a site. But, work-related accidents involving vehicles can occur in a variety of different ways.
The laws in Texas related to work-related injuries can be complex. Most states require employers to carry workers’ compensation coverage. But even in those states, it can be complex when a worker may be an independent contractor for a company. In Texas, workers who have suffered injury on the job may need to contact a work-injury lawyer with the complexity of the laws in the state.
Source: Longview News-Journal, “Man seriously injured when crushed by dump truck bed in Longview,” Reese Gordon, April 2, 2014