Worker Killed in Forklift Accident

A 28-year-old phone cable installer died Friday when a forklift carrying him overturned and carried him down a steep embankment near Santa Paula.

He was the seventh person in the county to die in a work-related accident in the past eight months.

Wayne Thompson Hunzicker III of San Dimas was pronounced dead at Ventura County Medical Center shortly after the 10:46 a.m. accident, said James Baroni, a senior deputy coroner.

Hunzicker, an employee of Victorville-based STC Wireless Resources, had just finished installing cable on a 45-foot cell phone tower when the accident occurred, said Dean Fryer, a spokesman for Cal/OSHA.

Witnesses said Hunzicker was standing on a platform about 35 feet above the forklift. He was wearing a protective harness and was in a metal safety cage, Fryer said.

The weight of the forklift was too much for a patch of soft dirt near a steep embankment and the machine tipped over, Fryer said.

Hunzicker was still strapped into his harness when emergency crews arrived. An autopsy showed he died of chest and abdominal injuries, officials said.

As is standard practice after any fatal work-related accident, Cal/OSHA has opened an investigation, Fryer said.

STC Wireless Resources was contracted by tower owner Sprint PCS to make the repair, Sprint spokeswoman Stephanie Walsh said. Officials at STC Wireless declined comment.

Hunzicker’s death marks the latest in a string of local fatal work accidents. Prior to Friday, the most recent occurred April 11 when a 79-year-old farm labor contractor was killed after he was run over by a forklift driven by one of his employees at Calleguas Ranch in Camarillo.