A 52-year-old Fall River man died Thursday after a front loader struck him at a recycling yard in Freetown, according to the Bristol County District Attorney's Office. David Torres, an employee of Excel Recycling, was found on the ground near the vehicle that hit him, and he was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Freetown police responded to the Excel Recycling yard at 17 Ridge Hill Road around 11:58 a.m. Thursday after receiving calls about the collision, per the DA's office, as reported by WJAR. Officers arrived to find Torres on the ground near the front loader that had struck him, according to police. He was seriously injured and taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Torres lived in Fall River, according to police, and the circumstances of the collision remain under investigation. No further details about what led up to the crash have been released.
A Yard With a History of Major Emergencies
Excel Recycling's Freetown operation is no stranger to large-scale emergency response. Just last October, the station's report area saw Freetown firefighters spend four hours battling a large evening blaze in a pile of shredded scrap material at the same 17 Ridge Hill Road facility, according to the Fall River Reporter. In July 2025, crews from ten surrounding towns were called in to help extinguish a heavy commercial fire at the company's secondary facility on Charlotte White Road in nearby Westport, the outlet also reported.
The scale of machinery on site is considerable. In 2016, Excel Recycling installed a 2,500-horsepower WENDT Model M6090 industrial auto shredder at the Freetown facility, a system capable of processing up to 60 tons of heavy scrap metal per hour, according to Waste Advantage Magazine. The plant processes heavy automotive and structural scrap using large-scale equipment, the trade publication noted, underscoring the kind of heavy industrial environment in which Thursday's fatal collision occurred.
Front Loaders and the Nation's Deadliest Jobs
Vehicle and mobile equipment incidents remain the leading cause of workplace deaths across all U.S. industries, accounting for 38.2% of all occupational fatalities in 2024, according to Waste360. That hazard is especially acute in the waste and recycling sector, where federal data released for 2024 showed refuse and recyclable materials collection ranked as the fifth deadliest occupation in the country, recording 37.4 fatal injuries per 100,000 full-time workers, per Waste Dive.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported eight workplace fatalities nationwide at material recovery facilities in 2024, following nine recorded deaths at processing sites the year before. Solid waste and recycling collection workers experience a fatality rate roughly 12 times higher than the national average across all private-sector occupations, according to Waste Advantage Magazine, a stark illustration of the risks tied to jobs like the one Torres held.
Federal regulations governing equipment like front-end loaders are extensive. OSHA standard 29 CFR 1926.602 requires earthmoving equipment to be outfitted with operational backup alarms, horns, rollover protection, and documented operator training. Industry safety manuals also call for operators to use spotters when visibility is obstructed and to bring machinery to a complete stop immediately if ground personnel enter the operating zone.
Investigation Involves Multiple Agencies
Hoodline detailed the 36-square-mile area, small police department, and regional mutual-aid and shared-dispatch arrangements of Rochester, Massachusetts, in earlier coverage of the town's public safety infrastructure. No further updates on the cause of Thursday's collision have been released, and the matter remains under investigation.
