An elevated platform with a worker positioned high above the sidewalk was dragged 8 feet by a tractor-trailer in Worcester, Massachusetts

 
Investigators at the accident scene. T&G Staff/Paul Kapteyn

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