Shipping container falls on truck at port, killing worker

A 52-year-old man died in South Philadelphia on Monday afternoon after a shipping container fell on his truck, according to police.

The incident happened at the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal, police said. Authorities did not identify the victim, but said he was pronounced dead at 12:35 p.m.

Kevin Feeley, spokesman for Greenwich Terminals LLC, said the accident took place on the Publicker portion of the Packer site, a lot where containers are sometimes taken after being offloaded.

Feeley declined to identify the victim pending family notification, but said he "was a valued 20-year employee at the terminal."

Greg Iannarelli, chief counsel for the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, said preliminary indications were that a top pick — a piece of machinery used to move containers — knocked a container from the top of a stack, causing it to fall onto the truck.

Feeley said the company was cooperating with police and federal safety officials investigating the incident.

Images from TV news helicopters showed a white pickup truck with a smashed roof sitting next to several containers.

The terminal describes itself as the largest container terminal on the Delaware River, with six berths that typically handle steel products, frozen meat, fruits, and other cargo.

New shipping services there helped boost the amount of containerized freight the Philadelphia port handled in April compared with a year earlier. And the port recently was chosen to go through its first major renovation in decades, with $300 million from the Wolf administration expected to be used to repair berths, add cranes, and double cargo handling space.

In 2011, a longshoreman, Charles DiRago, 54, died at the terminal when a tractor accidentally backed into him.