MAY 21, 2015
WORCESTER, MASS.
An elevated platform with a worker positioned
high above the sidewalk was dragged 8 feet by a tractor-trailer Thursday
morning. The quick-thinking worker jumped to a nearby rooftop to escape
injury as his truck was pulled from the sidewalk onto Sunderland Road.
Miraculously, he was not hurt.
Witnesses said that about 9:45 a.m., an
18-wheeler that was traveling north on Grafton Street took a right turn
onto Sunderland Road eastbound. As the truck took the corner, its
trailer caught the elevated platform and started dragging it down the
street. Witnesses said the truck's trailer was on the sidewalk.
The man on the platform was repairing a window
on the second floor of the Golden Pizza restaurant at 1137 Grafton St.
He was positioned at least 2 feet away from the curb, on the sidewalk on
Sunderland Road.
David Romanoff of Shrewsbury, who works across
the street, said he saw the tractor-trailer go up on the sidewalk and
catch the elevated platform with its trailer, dragging the smaller
machine with the man at the top. Scratch marks were apparent in the
roadway there.
People on the sidewalk were yelling for the driver to stop around that time, he said.
“There were several seconds where I heard
metal on metal,” Mr. Romanoff said. “(The driver) pulled forward about 8
feet and he didn’t stop immediately. The driver got out and said, ‘I’m
sorry.’”
Staff at the Golden Pizza declined comment to a reporter, saying only that their involved employee “too shaken up” to talk.
Worcester police were on scene investigating and did not immediately release information on the incident.
Credentials on the side of the vehicle say it belongs to Lily Transportation Corp. of Needham.
This incident comes one week after a
tractor-trailer driver for the Connecticut-based company Ocean Star
Transportation struck a light post on a sidewalk in Kelley Square and killed a 24-year-old woman outside Hotel Vernon. In that case, the driver has been charged with vehicular homicide.
Source: http://www.telegram.com