Information coming to Blueoceana Company indicates that\u00a0Mario Maurel, a 61 year old longshore worker in the employ of Ultramar at the South Pacific (TPS) Terminal (Valparaiso), was killed in yard tractor allision on Tuesday of this week.<\/p>\n
While the local news account of the accident that claimed Sr. Maurel’s life is short on facts that are directly related to the allision, we understand through independent sources that he was engaged in making a U-turn in an open area when he allided with an intermodal chassis. The impact caused his operator’s cab to be leveraged upward (into a service\/maintenance position), whereupon he was jettisoned through the vehicle’s windshield. His fall took him directly in front of the vehicle’s wheels, and he was run-over by the yard tractor he had been operating. A horrible accident to contemplate……<\/p>\n
Our sources indicate that all yard tractors at the facility are “velocity controlled” (fitted with speed governors), and that the operator was not wearing the fitted seat belt.<\/p>\n
The investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n