By Mark Edward Nero
A truck driver was killed at the Port of Long Beach on Sept. 16 when he was seemingly run over by a trailer he’d recently unlatched from a tractor.
The victim has been identified as William Vasquez, a 26-year-old Los Angeles resident.
At about 8:47 a.m. on Sept. 16, Long Beach Port Police officers responded to a report of an industrial accident at 700 Pier A Way. Upon their arrival, the officers say, they found the victim down on the asphalt next to a trailer and about 30 feet behind a 2009 Sterling 3-axle tractor.
The Long Beach Fire Department also responded and pronounced the victim dead at the scene.
According to police, an investigation revealed that the victim got out of his tractor without setting the emergency brake and without putting it in park. Vasquez, who police say was on his cell phone at the time, attempted to unlatch the trailer and the trailer slowly began to roll forward, striking the victim, who was then run over by the trailer.
Vasquez, who worked as an independent contract truck driver for Signal Hill-based California Multimodal, had been a truck driver for about three years, according to his family.
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health is investigating the incident.
