Toppled Trailer Crushes Father

A Compton man who was sitting in his parked car with his young son was crushed to death when a heavily loaded truck trailer toppled onto the sedan, Compton police said Thursday.

Compton Watch Cmdr. Ron Malachi said Guillermo G. Ortiz, 30, and his 11-year-old son went to pick up Ortiz’s wife from work about 4:30 p.m. at Globe Con Freight Systems on Walnut Avenue. Ortiz parked in the freight yard near an entrance.

While Ortiz and his son waited, a tractor-trailer pulled up alongside the car. The driver disconnected the trailer from the cab and drove away. Minutes later, Malachi said, the trailer “began to shake” and then fell onto the Ortiz car. Ortiz was crushed but his son was in the passenger seat and was uninjured.