A man operating a cherry picker in the East Village accidentally ran over his own son who was acting as a flagger Friday morning.
The 19-year-old victim got caught under the wheels of the reversing forklift driven by his father near the corner of First Avenue and E. 7th Street at around 8:30 a.m.
Witnesses said the victim was standing behind the truck when he slipped and fell.
“He was pulled down by the tire as the crane was moving backward,” one said. “The people were screaming and [the driver] went outside, but he was already dead.”
Police confirmed that the victim was a construction worker and the son of the cherry picker’s driver. The father was being questioned following the tragic accident.
“It was gruesome,” a bicyclist who witnessed the crash recalled. “I saw the wheel go over the flagger. I lost sight of him and the driver must have too. The driver must not have been able to see.”
