SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- A mechanic was killed Wednesday afternoon at the Pepsi Bottling Plant when he was run over by a transfer truck.

Officials said Phillip Lamar Easler, 50, of Woodruff, was changing a decal on the front license plate of the company-owned truck when the driver, unaware the man was there, ran over him.

A traffic fatality team was called to the scene to reconstruct the incident.


An autopsy will be performed Wednesday evening.

The plant is located at 700 S. Church St

 

Sounds like both these guys were acting in an unsafe manner to me. I don't think I would get in front of someones truck while it was running. but ultimately the responsibility falls on the driver.

 

yea at the shop we use they pull the starter fuse from the truck when ever they are doing work on them

 

one place I deliver has a big sign that says " remember the 360 degree rule, a walk around your truck could save a life" how right they are

 

Possibly could it be someone said his truck was done and it wasn't and the driver did not see him? I am just guessing here as you know many shops get busy and confussed :shock:

 

I don't know about anyone else, but when I walk up to my truck, I do things like take notice under the engine for puddles. In seeing something like that, I find it hard to imagine that anyone could "hide" in front of my truck effectively. You're going to notice a shadow from something. How did the driver miss seeing it? Also, every time I get into my truck, I ALWAYS knock the dust off the tires first. Even in the fuel island.

 

Ok what if?

You did all those things and when you get back in the truck and fill out your log book,check route on map,maybe get a quick phone call in before pulling out.In the meantime the mechanic just happens to notice the missing decal on your plate and just bends over for a quick second to replace it? Maybe the mechanic thought he made eye contact with the driver when the driver was doing something else?

It's a very sad story but I think maybe some of the blame "could" be placed in other areas.

 

sorry hit the button twice... :roll:

 

Then that means you are having a bad day... and you will have a long time to think about how bad of a day it was when you are sitting in jail or worse at a dispatchers desk.

 

Not every accident results in jail time for the driver,maybe there were other factors involved,I love all the instant attorneys we have on this site,every thing is a worst case scenario we have no idea what happened the story leaves out alot of the details and most just blindly lay blame totally on the driver thats all I'm saying.

I worked with a guy a couple of years back that had a similar situation,he was hooking up to a trailer backed into a row of docks about 80 long,well unfortunatley a mechanic was working underneath the trailer next to him and at the same time this guy was backing under his trailer and the mechanic was coming out from underneath the trailer to get a tool or something and the poor mechanic was killed between the truck and trailer.Nothing happened to the driver he was still employed there when I left 4 years later,sometimes its just an unfortunate accident and there are bad outcomes.