DATE: Thursday, August 7, 1997              TAG: 9708070466

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CINDY CLAYTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   53 lines

BEACH WORKER CRUSHED TO DEATH UNDER DUMP TRUCK

A 56-year-old city worker was crushed to death by the bed of a dump truck Wednesday behind Parkway Elementary School, police said.

Killed in the accident, which happened at about 9:45 a.m., was Robert Lee Pernell, a 14-year employee of the city's landscape services division, said police spokesman Mike Carey. Pernell was killed instantly and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The accident happened as several workers were shoveling asphalt off the dump truck to create a walkway between some trailers behind the school, located in the 4100 block of O'Hare Drive, said police spokesman Mike Carey.

The men had shoveled some asphalt from the bed, which was slightly tilted, Carey said. But they needed to raise the bed higher, to shovel some asphalt from the front end. However, the bed jammed before it was high enough, he said.

The man had climbed between the truck's cab and bed and was kneeling down to see if he could release the bed when it suddenly came crashing down on him, Carey said. The truck bed crushed his head and shoulders. ``All of a sudden I heard (the men) shouting, `Oh my gosh! Call 911,' '' said Suzy Quinn, who lives in an apartment complex just beyond a chain link fence behind the school.

``I ran down and I saw him underneath the truck,'' Quinn said. At first, workers were frantic, she said. At some point, when workers apparently realized there was nothing they could do, one of the men walked over to fence, gripped the chain link and broke down in tears, she said.

When rescue workers removed the body, city workers who had witnessed the accident were not at the scene.

Rescue workers draped a sheet over part of the bright orange dump truck. They built a platform on both sides of the truck, then used high pressure air bags to lift the bed high enough to free the man.

The body was taken to Virginia Beach General Hospital, where a decision would be made about an autopsy.

Inspectors from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration were at the scene Wednesday afternoon, Carey said. He said they would inspect the truck to try to determine the accident's cause.

The accident marks the second time in less than four months that employees in the city's landscape services division have lost a co-worker.

In April, Rudolph Stewart Jr. was gunned down in front of his house in the Diamond Springs Homes neighborhood in a drive-by shooting. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

CHARLIE MEADS/The Virginian-Pilot

Virginia Beach police examine the dump truck Wednesday that crushed

a city worker to death while he was trying to release the truck's

jammed bed. While he was under it, the bed suddenly came loose. KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT GENERAL FATALITY

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