Dump truck driver fatally plunges hundreds of feet into Indiana water pit on the job

A dump truck driver fatally plunged hundreds of feet into a water-filled rock pit in Indiana Tuesday after his several-ton vehicle slipped near the edge of a quarry site, according to officials.

The unidentified worker’s body was found by divers Wednesday morning at least 20 feet below the surface in rural Crawford County, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources said in a news release.

The Mulzer Crushed Stone Inc. employee was driving the massive dump truck near the cliff before it went over the edge around 2 p.m. Tuesday, the department said.

First responders reached the scene, but had trouble searching for the man because of “steep, unstable terrain” around the pit, officials said. Employees with the company constructed a temporary path that helped conservation officers reach the water by boat.

“As you can imagine a quarry is not the most stable environment to work in,” Indiana Conservation Officer Jim Schreck told WDRB. “Our efforts were hampered by the terrain.”

Sonar images taken from the boat pinpointed the truck’s location, and a remote-operated submersible helped show divers where the man was, the Natural Resources Department said.

Divers then pulled the worker’s body out of the submerged truck.

“For our searches, we have to make sure it’s a safe, stable environment for them to even enter the water,” Schreck reportedly said.

The quarry site is in Cape Sandy, an unincorporated community that lies close to the Ohio River and is near the Kentucky border.