By Joe Anuta and Rich Bockmann
An East Elmhurst man, who was killed in a forklift accident at a College Point industrial firm last Thursday morning, was identified as 61-year-old Omar Baranhona, police said.
Baranhona was believed to have been operating a forklift at 28-00 College Point Blvd. at around 11 a.m. when the accident occurred, causing the machine to tip over and fall on the man, a spokesman for the NYPD said.
When officers arrived, they found Baranhona had suffered severe trauma to his body, cops said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The address where the accident occurred matches that of Raw Equipment Corp., a firm that offers a variety of products to the concrete construction industry.
Calls to the company were not returned as of Thursday evening.
In 2008, a similar incident led to the death of 13-year old Kevin Hrcka, who was inside a Ridgewood building supply company where his father worked.
Hrcka’s father was in another room changing his clothes when the boy sped off at full speed and tried to make too sharp a turn, causing the machine to tip over and crush him, police told TimesLedger Newspapers at the time of the incident.
