FULLERTON : Man Crushed by Tractor-Trailer Wheels in Apparent Suicide

A 33-year-old Oakhurst, Calif., man was crushed to death by a tractor-trailer early Tuesday after he crouched under the truck’s rear wheels in an apparent suicide, police said.

A witness told police that he saw James Putman dash across Orangethorpe Avenue shortly before 6 a.m. and duck in front of the trailer’s rear wheels as the rig made a slow left turn onto Euclid Street.

Police said the driver of the rig kept going, probably unaware of the incident. Putman died at the scene of massive head injuries, said Sgt. Glenn Deveney.

“When large trucks turn or move through an intersection, if the trailer comes through and passes over something, often that driver does not know,” Deveney said. “Sometimes they’ll clip a light signal and they don’t even know it.”

Another truck driver discovered Putnam’s body in the Euclid Street crosswalk shortly after the incident and called authorities, Deveney said.

Putman had parked his pickup truck at the street corner with the headlights on and a wheel on the curb.