A city of Buffalo employee was struck and killed by heavy equipment Wednesday while working to clear streets following the area’s massive snowstorm, Mayor Byron Brown said.
The man, whose name was not released, was a longtime employee.
He was struck by a high lift that was backing up after dumping snow into a truck to be hauled away, city officials said.
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Following the accident, Brown announced that snow-removal operations would be suspended beginning at 5 p.m. Wednesday and resume on Friday.
“We know that there is tremendous grief in the workforce right now,” the mayor said.
Although crews have been working long hours for the past week, Brown said there was no evidence that workload was a factor.
The accident occurred in south Buffalo, which received more than 3 feet of snow from Nov. 17-20. The storm dropped more than 80 inches of snow in the suburbs of Hamburg and Orchard Park.
The storm has been blamed for the deaths of three men who had heart attacks while clearing snow, according to Erie County officials.
