Cyclist Crushed to Death when Container Slides off Truck (Workers on Strike , Cost Cutting)

the victim has now been identified as 51 year old Robert Castorena . the day before this horrible accident the same thing happened but nobody was harmed then.


<On Tuesday, it turned deadly. It's unclear what caused the container to come off the truck, but it happened just as the driver was passing the man on his bike. The victim never had a chance. The coroner's office has only identified him as an Asian male.

Alva says he believes trucking companies are cutting corners because truck drivers who haul the cargo are on strike at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

"Right now, since we're on strike, the 18-wheelers aren't taking out the containers. I'm assuming that they're hiring those flatbeds because yesterday it was a flatbed too," said Alva. "Those containers weigh from 40,000 and up. They just strap them on with straps, and they basically tear off."

"What we've got happening here is drivers who are paid by the load instead of by the hour, and so they're just having to drive faster and faster and cut corners, and we've seen so many accidents; people losing their lives," said Barbara Maynard with Teamsters.

"Really it should be the responsibility of these large trucking companies who contract directly with Amazon, Proctor & Gamble, Toyota, Walmart, the owners of this cargo, who really should be following the law and making sure that everybody is safe because these trucks are lethal," said Maynard. >

http://abc7.com/news/bicyclist-crushed-to-death-by-cargo-container-in-long-beach/1054667/