By BERNIE HORNICK
GLENDALE — An independent trucker died in a freak accident early Tuesday while working alone loading his rig with lumber, authorities said.
Shannon McGarvey, 40, of Coalport, was crushed by the forklift when he became pinned between the boom and the roof, Cambria County Coroner Dennis Kwiatkowski said.
“It was just an odd accident that happened,” the coroner said.
Kwiatkowski said McGarvey apparently fell while climbing down off the bed of the tractor-trailer, hit the controls of the forklift and set it into motion.
He had been working at George W. Long & Sons lumberyard in northern Cambria County, which Kwiatkowski said was going out of business. Calls to the Beaver Valley Road business Tuesday afternoon went unanswered.
McGarvey died of crush injuries to the chest, traumatic asphyxia, the coroner said.
Kwiatkowski said McGarvey loaded his own lumber onto the 18-wheeler all the time.
A passerby saw the trucker working and, on his return trip a half-hour later, saw McGarvey pinned by the machine. The passerby tried to help him and called 911, Kwiatkowski said.
The 911 call was placed just before 7 a.m. and Kwiatkowski pronounced the man dead at the scene at 8:10 a.m.
State police investigated and also concluded that McGarvey fell.
McGarvey leaves behind a wife and child.
