A 20-year-old man was killed Monday after an overpass under construction collapsed on his car. The overpass, in DeSoto County, Mississippi, fell after a hydraulic excavator struck the bridge, dislodging six support beams.
According to county coroner Jeffrey Pounders, Jerell Robinson died instantly when the heavy debris crushed his car. Robinson, a Domino’s deliveryman, was on his way to work when the bridge collapsed.
Construction crews used saws and cranes to remove the concrete and rebar off the car and road. The accident, which occurred on the Mississippi 304 overpass of U.S. 51, happened around 3:30 p.m. Crews were able to remove Robinson’s body from the flattened car around 5:30 p.m., and the highway was cleared by 8:30 p.m.
Hernando Police investigator Michael Lee, who was one of the first to arrive at the accident, said it was probably the worst highway construction accident he had seen.
“It’s a miracle nobody else was killed,” Lee told the Associated Press.
Harper Construction of Nashville was working on the highway, which is part of a road construction project between Interstate 55 and the casinos in Tunica, Miss. Police questioned the person who had been operating the excavator at the time of the collapse, as well as other construction workers at the scene.
