Vehicle rolls down incline and crushes man as it impacts with truck in Eilat's industrial zone.
By JPOST.COM STAFFforklift driver 224 88(photo credit: Courtesy)
A 26-year-old Eilat resident was killed Thursday morning when the forklift he was driving rolled down a slope and crushed him to death.
Police, along with investigators from the Ministry of Industry, Trade Labor were called to the scene to investigate the incident, as well as to determine whether it constituted a work accident or a road accident.
An initial investigation found that the man, a forklift driver working for a construction company, was sent to unload cargo from a truck located in Eilat's industrial zone, near a storage facility. The driver stopped the forklift on a slope and approached the truck in order to unload it.
Whilst he was untying packages from the back of the truck, the forklift, for reasons as yet unclear, began to roll down the slope, crashing into the truck and crushing the man to death.
A police spokesman in Eilat, chief superintendent Eitan Gadsi, said that the investigation was looking into the question of "whether the driver put on the brakes after stopping the forklift, or if a mechanical fault caused [the accident]."
According the the spokesman, "Only after the Ministry of Labor rules as to whether this was a work accident or a road accident will we be able to continue with the investigation."
