At approximately 7:52 a.m. Thursday, Weaver W. Shirk, 45, was loading lumber onto a flatbed semi-trailer truck at a Cerulean lumber yard on Buffalo Road, with the lumber being hoisted and led out of a bay door, but when the flatbed truck backed into position, the flatbed truck’s muffler hit an I-beam, said Patterson.
While Shirk was on the ground motioning the truck into position, the truck driver, 68-year-old Ned Thalmann from Hopkinsville was driving the truck into position when he heard the impact and stopped, Patterson wrote.
When Thalmann drove the truck forward, the I-beam was knocked loose and fell, and the lumber load, already in motion, fell towards the truck, and Shirk was pinned between the load and the flatbed after he tried to stop the load from hitting the truck, Patterson said, adding that Shirk’s injuries were fatal.
KSP Trooper Billy Over was assisted at the scene by the Trigg County Sheriff’s Department, the Trigg County Rescue Squad, Trigg County Emergency Medical Service, Cerulean Fire Department and Trigg County Coroner John Mark Vinson.
Trooper Billy Over is continuing an investigation into the incident.
