PLANTATION, FLORIDA
The parking lot of the Westfield Broward mall in Plantation was a tragic scene Friday, when a tow truck driver was run over by an SUV he was attempting to take away.
“He got underneath, didn’t realize he’d left the tow truck in drive and it crushed him,” said Stuart Weinstock, an officer with Prowler Recovery, Inc. of Fort Lauderdale.
Plantation police said the driver was Francisco Canjura, 34, of Tamarac.
Weinstock and another official with the towing company were at the mall as the Broward County Medical Examiner and Plantation police investigated the accident that took Canjura’s life.
Canjura drove for the company for 12 years, Weinstock said.
A large truck from Superior Towing stood by to lift a white SUV off Canjura’s body. Yellow tarps were draped from the SUV to protect his dignity.
The accident happened shortly after 5 a.m. near the mall’s entrance in the 8100 block of West Broward Boulevard, east of the Ole Ole Mexican Restaurant. The road was blocked to mall employees and shoppers as investigators documented the scene.
A passerby had called 911 to report a man was trapped beneath an SUV, Plantation Police Detective Robert Rettig said.
The driver was dead when the Plantation Fire Department arrived, an agency spokesman said.
Canjura was not married and was not a father, “but has a loving family, mom, dad, brothers, sisters. He’s just a super, super man,” Weinstock said.