Man dies in forklift accident at Pontoon Beach warehouse

PONTOON BEACH A 19-year-old Mitchell man died Wednesday morning after a forklift accident in Pontoon Beach, the Madison County Coroner’s Office said.

Zachery M. Boland died in a workplace accident in a warehouse at 12 Gateway Commerce Center Drive East, the coroner’s office said.

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Police were called to the scene at 1:24 a.m., and Boland was pronounced dead at 2:08 a .m.

According to the preliminary investigation, Boland was operating a forklift and loading appliances onto a truck. The truck driver thought the loading of his truck had been completed and started to pull away, which apparently caused the forklift to fall backward, causing Boland to strike his head on the door plate of a loading dock, the coroner’s office said. Boland, 19, had worked at the facility for less than a month.

The facility is a location for Saddle Creek Corp., the Pontoon Beach Police said.

The Occupational Health and Safety Administration will be investigating the incident. While spokesman Karl Armstrong could not comment on the specifics of this instance, he did say that there are certain minimum requirements for forklift operation: classroom training, training specific to the machine and an evaluation in which the operator demonstrates he is capable of handling the machinery. These are training standards, Armstrong said, but the time frame for implementing them is up to the company and there are provisions for employees to work with a manager’s supervision.

An autopsy was scheduled to be performed Wednesday as well as routine toxicology testing. OSHA’s investigation will take at least 30 days, Armstrong said.

This story was originally published July 15, 2015 at 11:07 AM with the headline "Man dies in forklift accident at Pontoon Beach warehouse."