A longshoreman working at the Port of Anchorage died Friday morning after he was pinned between two pieces of equipment, according to Lindsey Whitt, the port's director of external affairs.
The longshoreman, who has not been identified, had been loading military equipment into rail cars from a Totem Ocean Trailer Express (TOTE) ship when he got "pinched" between two pieces of military equipment, Whitt said. She said the man was on top of a rail car when the incident occurred.
He died immediately, Whitt said.
The military equipment was headed to the Fort Wainwright Army base in Fairbanks, where the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team was being deployed after training in the Lower 48, Whitt said.
TOTE had the contract to move the equipment, she said.
In a statement Friday, TOTE said the man was employed by Sea Star Stevedoring, a company doing work for TOTE. It said TOTE was working with the company and the Anchorage Independent Longshore Union, Local No. 1, to determine what led to the man's death.
"Totem Ocean will continue to keep the victim's family in our thoughts and prayers and would ask that the Anchorage community do the same," the statement said.
The Anchorage Police Department and Anchorage Fire Department both responded to the port Friday morning, Whitt said. An investigation is ongoing, she said.
Whitt said the man's death is the fourth at the Port of Anchorage in as many years.
In 2011, a construction worker died when the ground collapsed beneath his bulldozer while working on the Port of Anchorage expansion project. The next year, a California man stole a taxi, drove through port security and jumped to his death from a fuel tank. A month later, a security guard drove a truck off the dock.