COVENTRY — A 58-year-old subcontractor died Thursday morning after the aerial lift he was operating tipped over at the Casella Waste Systems landfill in Coventry, Vermont State Police said.
Newport EMS was dispatched to the landfill at 21 Landfill Lane at about 9:40 a.m. for a report of an unconscious man who was said to have fallen.
The man, later identified as Thomas Feerick, 58, of Fairfax, was taken to North Country Hospital in Newport, where life-saving measures were unsuccessful. He was declared dead later Thursday morning.
State police investigators determined Feerick had been hired as a subcontractor at the landfill and was operating an aerial lift to remove a section of fencing when the lift tipped over down a small embankment.
Feerick was not wearing a harness and was ejected from the platform when it struck the ground or just before, police said.
Contractors working nearby rushed to Feerick and called 911.
Investigators said all evidence suggests the incident was accidental, and the death is not considered suspicious.
Feerick’s body was taken to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington for an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death.
