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Staff photo by Pat Auckerman
A Middletown police investigator photographs the scene of an accident at Roosevelt Boulevard and Highland Street as he investigates the fatal crash in Middletown, Ohio Tuesday Dec. 1, 2009.
Middletown man killed in dump truck accident
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By Tiffany Y. Latta,
Staff Writer
Updated 2:39 PM Wednesday, December 2, 2009
MIDDLETOWN — Dozens of friends and family of a 50-year-old Middletown resident known as “Paint Man” were in shock Tuesday afternoon after learning he had died in a traffic accident.
Robert Thomas Jr. of Wilbraham Road was pronounced dead at the scene of a single-vehicle crash at the intersection of Roosevelt Boulevard and Highland Street, according to Middletown police and the Butler County Coroner’s Office.
Thomas was hauling logs in a Chevrolet dump truck traveling westbound on Roosevelt Boulevard at about 3:18 p.m. when he turned right onto Highland, apparently taking the turn too fast, witnesses told police.
The weight of the truck then shifted to the driver’s side, forcing the vehicle onto two wheels before it crashed to the pavement.
Middletown police Detective Jerry C. Mossman said Thomas was ejected out of the driver’s side door and pinned beneath the truck.
He died instantaneously, Mossman said.
A second car was struck by logs, but there were no injuries to occupants of that vehicle, according to police and witnesses.
Family and friends of Thomas who arrived at the scene of the crash shortly after the accident stood along Highland in disbelief.
A woman, described as his girlfriend, sobbed loudly and begged officers to allow her to talk to Thomas, believing her voice would revive him.“If he could hear my voice he would get up,” the woman repeated again and again.
Linda Wofford, 48, of Middletown was among several friends of Thomas’ who arrived at the scene after the accident. She described Thomas as a good friend and a hard-working man.
“He kept himself busy. He was always hauling stuff, fixing cars. He would haul away anything," Wofford said.
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