04/11/2011 // Greensboro, NC, USA // Personal Injury Lawyers News // Nicole Howley

Trenton, FL — A sinkhole swallowed a well driller and his truck, leaving the man dead near the Lancaster Correctional Institution in Trenton. The fatal work-related accident was discovered late Saturday at around 11:30 p.m., by the victim’s partner, reported the Sun-Sentinel.

The body of 52-year-old Johnn Clyde Smith was pulled from a sinkhole early Sunday after the sinkhole opened up beneath him. His truck fell on top of him in the 35-foot-wide sinkhole.

Responding emergency crews arrived at the scene and pulled the truck and its drilling rig from the hole. Smith’s body was taken to Gainesville, where an autopsy is being conducted.

Smith was found under about five feet of dirt in the sinkhole. Smith Well Drilling in O’Brien reportedly employed him.

“It looks like he already had some well pipe in the ground when the sinkhole opened up beneath him and he fell in,” Sheriff’s spokesman Maj. Smith said. “Then the truck fell in on top of him and caved in the sides, which covered him in about five feet of dirt.”

A full investigation is underway.

Legal News Reporter: Nicole Howley-Legal news for Florida work-related accident lawyers.

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