Authorities in Florida said a 40-year-old man died in a tragic accident last week while he was using a porta-potty.
The man, Aaron Henderson, who had worked as a traffic control contractor, was crushed to death by a bulldozer last Friday evening at the North Central Landfill in Polk County, authorities said.
According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, Henderson’s job as a “spotter” at the site was to direct incoming and outgoing dump trucks from the ground as they dumped trash in the landfill, per FOX 13 Tampa Bay.
The freak accident occurred as workers were about to close for the day and shut down the facility.
According to deputies, the bulldozer operator has closed for the day and was driving up an embankment to park at a heavy equipment staging area. However, the bulldozer’s front blade was elevated high enough to block part of its front view.
When the track-laying tractor reached level ground, the driver heard a loud crumble and became aware he went over the portable enclosure, of which he wasn’t aware was close to the staging area, FOX 13 reported.
“He immediately exited the bulldozer and ran towards the porta-potty to see if anyone was inside of it,” a sheriff’s office spokesperson told St. Petersburg’s WTSP-TV. “At that time, he observed Henderson unresponsive inside the porta-potty.”
The foreman responded and called 911. Unfortunately, Henderson died at the scene, deputies said.
Henderson was a father of three. He got the job just a few weeks ago at the landfill, FOX 13 reported.
“He came up in the streets a little bit and he was tired of living like that,” his older brother Lenard Henderson told the station. “He wanted to have a responsible and be a responsible father.”
Henderson’s death was the first fatality at the North Central Landfill according to Local leaders.
“The landfill is a dynamic, industrial environment with movement of hundreds of trucks coming to unload heavy equipment at the landfill all day long,” County Manager Bill Beasley told WTSP-TV. “We have never experienced anything like this here.”
Deputies said Henderson’s death was a tragic, industrial accident. Nevertheless, an autopsy will be conducted at a later date.
