NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. (WRDW/Gray News) – A man died in a construction accident at a Lowe’s store in South Carolina on Sunday, according to law enforcement officials.
The Aiken County Coroner’s Office said 43-year-old Ray C. Straight, of West Virginia, died in the accident at a Lowe’s store in North Augusta, South Carolina.
Police said Straight was an employee of a paving crew that was working in the Lowe’s parking lot.
The coroner’s office says at 5:04 p.m., North Augusta Department of Public Safety officers responded to the Lowe’s, located at 1220 Knox Avenue, where Straight was found under heavy machinery.
First responders administered CPR, but Straight was unable to be revived, according to the coroner’s office.
He was declared dead at 5:50 p.m.
According to the incident report, a witness said Straight was on the back ladder of heavy machinery. When the machine began backing up, he slipped from the ladder and was run over by the vehicle’s track up to his chest.
Lt. William Hultman with the North Augusta Department of Public Safety said it does “not appear that anything criminal happened.”
“But just to cover all our bases, we are still continuing to investigate it to our fullest capability to make sure everything is what it appears to be,” Hultman said.
WRDW has reached out to Lowe’s for a statement.
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