Last week, authorities in Florida say a bulldozer crushed to death a man who was in the process of urinating in a porta-potty. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that Aaron Henderson, 40, was killed Friday night while working as a traffic control contractor at the North Central Landfill in Polk County.
According to FOX 13 Tampa Bay, Henderson had been working at the landfill as a “spotter,” directing traffic from the ground as trash dump trucks entered and exited. Workers at the site were preparing to put away their tools and shut down the facility when a freak accident occurred.
At a heavy-equipment staging area, the bulldozer operator began driving up an embankment, but its front blade was so high that it partially obscured its view, deputies said.
Motorized machine driver heard a loud crumble as he turned the bulldozer over the port-a-potty near the staging area, FOX 13 reported. He was unaware that the porta-potty was there.
According to WTSP-TV, St. Petersburg Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, “He immediately exited the bulldozer and ran toward the porta-potty to see if anyone was inside of it.” When he went into the porta-potty, he noticed that Henderson was unresponsive.
Deputies say the foreman dialed 911 in response. It appears that Henderson was killed at the scene of the crime.
FOX 13 reported that Henderson, a married father of three, was recently hired to work at the landfill.
His older brother, Lenard Henderson, told a local television station that “he came up in the streets a little bit and he was tired of living like that,” according to the AP. “He aspired to have and be a responsible individual.”
The first fatality at the North Central Landfill was attributed to his death, according to local officials.
In an interview with WTSP-TV, County Manager Bill Beasley described the landfill as a “dynamic, industrial environment” with “hundreds of trucks coming to unload heavy equipment” every day. “This has never happened to us before.”
Although an autopsy will be conducted at a later date, deputies believe this was a tragic, industrial accident. At a distance of about 55 miles from Orlando, the landfill is situated.