Posted by Newspaper Transcriber on Thursday, April 27, 2006 at 17:34:02 :

Tragedy in DC
Father of Five Crushed In Freeway Job

A San Francisco father of five children was crushed to death Friday afternoon when the earth moving machine he was driving toppled over the edge of an embankment on the Junipero Serra Freeway construction site in Daly City.

The victim is R.J. Scruggs, 49, an employee of the Guy F. Atkinson Company.

According to reports, Scruggs was driving the heavy machine used to compact the earth along the edge of the road during compacting operations around 4:30 p.m. He went to close to the edge and the weight of the machine caused it to topple over the side.

He was crushed by the weight of the machine as it rolled over. According to Mike McDonald of Mercy Ambulance, Scruggs appeared to have died instantly.

He was taken immediately to the San Mateo County Coroner’s Office. Scruggs resided at 1669 Florida Street in San Francisco.

This was the second death attributed to accidents in the construction of the freeway. The first accident occurred last year.

The Record & Westlake Times, Front Page, Wednesday, June 26, 1967

From CADI: SCRUGGS RJ 01/18/1918 M SAN MATEO 02/24/1967 250-24-1917 49 yrs