Fatality Highlights Dangerous Practice

There’s no doubt it’s easier to collect traffic cones from the back of a truck than to get in and out of a truck cab repeatedly to do so, but it’s also far more dangerous.

A Colorado man who was standing or riding in the back of a truck was run over twice by the truck’s driver after somehow falling out of the box. Richard Lovelace, 43, of Denver died at the scene after the truck first reversed and ran over him and then did so a second time while moving forward.

The driver told police he was not aware that Lovelace had fallen from the back of the truck.

This dangerous practice is nothing new to OSHA, which has cited five Colorado companies in the past year alone after workers collecting or placing orange traffic cones were hurt in falls from the backs of trucks.

Regardless of what type of work they are doing, it isn’t safe to let employees ride in the back of a truck.