A security guard in Pembroke Park, Florida was hit and killed by a tractor trailer that was backing up at a warehouse.

According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the truck driver was pulling his rig out of a loading dock thinking the trailer was already loaded. He realized that the trailer was empty. Then he started to back his trailer back into the loading bay.

The police said that the security guard did not see or hear Dayes; he appeared to be writing something down and was not paying attention. A witness tried to warn him but the security guard did not hear him.

The man was taken to a local hospital where you was pronounced dead.

Our View

Our personal injury attorneys send our condolences to the family of the man who was killed in this tragic truck accident. This type of truck accident is referred to in the industry as a backover accieent. It occurs when a backing up tractor trailer or other commercial vehicle hits a worker who is behind the vehicle.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics states that 70 workers in 2011 died in backover incidents. Many of these incidents can be prevented with proper safety precautions.

According to the OSHA website, backover accidents happen for many reasons. Sometimes drivers cannot see that a worker is in their blind spot. Workers might not be able to hear the back up alarms because there is job site noise, or the alarms may not be working. A spotter may not see that a person is behind the truck. And sometimes the truck driver will just assume that the area behind the truck is clear when there is a person there.

OSHA recommends that the best solution to prevent backover accidents is to simply always use a qualified spotter when backing up a large vehicle on a job site, such as into a loading bay. There is no doubt that the above tragic truck accident could have been avoided if there had been a spotter there to make sure that there was no one behind the truck.

In a truck accident such as this, there is at least the appearance that the truck driver may have been partially at fault for the death of the security guard. When a person is killed due to the negligent act of another person, the filing of a wrongful death lawsuit is a possibility. A wrongful death settlement can provide the grieving family with essential funds they need to survive financially as they deal with their loss.