A boy was crushed to death this week in a Chicago construction accident after he fell from a front loader being driven by his father, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Bystanders were alerted by the father’s shouts at the South Side building being converted to condos. Investigators believe the boy, Valente Torres, 9, fell from his father’s lap atop the front loader and was killed by the front loader’s falling bucket of dirt.
He was still on his feet when his father rushed to his aid shortly before 10 a.m..
A relative of father Raul Torres said the family was trying to save some money by bringing the youngest of of six children to work.
The boy was scheduled to start 4th grade at Sawyer Elementary School in Gage Park in a few weeks. He was pronounced deat at 10:12 a.m. Tuesday at the University of Chicago Corner Children’s Hospital.
Stephanie Johnson, 24, a neighbor who lives three buildings from the construction site, told the newspaper she had seen the little boy running in the block for the last two days, sometimes playing with other neighbors’ children.