Teen doing donuts in forklift dies when machinery falls on him, Tennessee police say
A teenager in Tennessee died over the weekend after he was crushed by a heavy piece of construction equipment that police said he had been playing on with a friend.
Jaden Dalton, 15, was doing donuts in a forklift at an equipment rental business in Nashville when the machine overturned on him, a witness told the Nashville Police Department. Police said Dalton and his friend had somehow managed to start the engines to some equipment on the lot and began operating them.
His death has been ruled an accident.
Jaden was a freshman at Maplewood High School in northeast Nashville, Metro Nashville Public Schools told McClatchy News in a Feb. 21 statement.
“Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Jaden Dalton, a 9th grade student at Maplewood High who tragically lost his life in an accident yesterday,” the school district said. “Our support team has been working with the school to provide grief counseling as they mourn the loss of their classmate.”
Police said the accident occurred at 505 Davidson Street, just off the Cumberland River outside central Nashville.
WKRN identified the business as Equipment Finders Inc. A company representative told the news outlet they were “awaiting the result of the police investigation, until then we have no comment.”
Some of Jaden’s family said the keys had been left in the ignition of the forklift and there wasn’t adequate fencing around the property, WTVF reported. His family told WSMV they believe Jaden and his friend jumped over a barricade to get in.
Latonya Dalton, Jaden’s aunt, said he was “trying to actually jump out of the machine” when the forklift fell and crushed him, WKRN reported.
“It’s hard out here on these streets, these kids, they don’t have nothing else better to do,” she told WKRN. “As you can see, they’ll find something to do if they don’t have nothing to do out here.”
Dalton’s older sister, Cristol Quintana, was one of the first people on the scene, WTVF reported.
“(They) went back outside to play and about an hour later they just came and run in the house saying, ‘He’s not breathing, he’s dead, he’s gone.’ And I ran down there, I tried to lift up the machine, I couldn’t even lift it. He was gone,” Quintana told WTVF.
Jaden’s mom said she “broke down in tears” when she heard the news, WSMV reported.
“It was too hard to swallow,” Latasha Dalton told the news outlet. “People are (driving by) honking today, saying sorry for your loss, but that ain’t bringing him back. I mean, he was a good child, and I mean everybody loved him.”
Dalton said her son loved to take care of his younger siblings, WSMV reported.
“People would think that I had him trained like that, but that was him. That’s how he was. He cared about his siblings,” she said, according to WSMV. “(Jaden had) a very big personality. He loved to rap, dance, anything. You name it.”
Jaden’s aunt said she just wants her nephew back.
“That’s all. I just want him to come back,” Latonya Dalton told WTVF. “I miss him already.”
This story was originally published February 22, 2022 at 9:31 AM with the headline "Teen doing donuts in forklift dies when machinery falls on him, Tennessee police say."
