A 55-year-old farm worker died when one of the jacks supporting the van he was working under gave way.
The vehicle – details of which have not been given – crushed Analide Martins to death early last Friday morning.
Martins’ boss, 79-year-old Custódio Ruivo, has explained how he came into the warehouse at around 8am, and saw his employee’s feet sticking out from underneath the stationery vehicle.
Thinking he was working, Ruivo called out to him.
When he received no response, he approached Martins, and then realised the man was trapped underneath, with the chassis on top of him.
He must have been in that condition for at least half-an-hour, Ruivo told Correio da Manhã.
“It is very sad. From what we can gather, one of the supports he was using to keep the van up must have broken.”
Martins is understood to have only worked for Ruivo for the last six months.
He lived in São Bartolomeu de Messines, writes CM, and was married with one child.
