Personal Injury Law

13 Year Old Boy Killed At Father?s Workplace

In a tragic example of what will surely become a hotly contested New York Wrongful Death case; a young boy visiting his father?s workplace was killed in Queens when the small forklift style vehicle he was trying to drive flipped over and crushed him, according to a New York Times Article. The accident occurred shortly after noon in a Ridgewood neighborhood lot used by Miron Building Supply, a building materials distributor.

Kevin Hrcka, 13 was son to Rob Hercka who had been a Hi-Lo operator for Miron Building Supply for the past 4 months. Hi-Los are often used in warehouses to lift wooden pallets with steel forks at the front of the vehicle. The machines are used to carry materials throughout the company?s facility near the border of Brooklyn and Queens.

On Saturday, January 19th Kevin came to meet his father at the Miron Building Supply facility. Two HI-Lo forklifts had been put away in a shed, although the keys were left in the ignition because the lot was scheduled to remain open until later that afternoon. Officials believe the boy?s father might have been in a locker room changing out of his work clothes, when the boy climbed into one of the machines and drove it away. Miron officials said Kevin appeared to have driven the Hi-Lo at a high speed toward the end of the lot and then tried to turn. It appeared the boy tried to jump off the vehicle before it landed on its side and pinned him beneath it. The police said Kevin was pronounced dead at the scene as a result of the New York Construction Accident.

Full post as published by New York Injury Talk Blog on January 20, 2008 (boomark / email).