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Driver Found Dead Inside Submerged Bulldozer

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TBO.com

Published: November 11, 2008

Updated: 11/11/2008 08:12 pm

MULBERRY - A 53-year-old Bartow man died this evening after a bulldozer accident, Polk County deputies said.

Charles Lanier was operating a bulldozer shortly after 3 p.m. at a site off County Road 640 when the bulldozer went into a pit filled with water. The pit was at the bottom of a 20-foot embankment, and the bulldozer apparently fell into the pit and landed upright, with only about a foot of the machine above water, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

The PCSO dive team was called to the scene and found Lanier in the bulldozer's cab at about 6 p.m.

The sheriff's office says the death is being treated as the result of an accidental industrial accident, and an autopsy will be conducted Wednesday to determine his exact cause of death.

Lanier, of 6147 Old Homeland Road in Bartow, was an employee of Moretrench Contracting, which was hired by Mosaic to do reclamation work on the property, which was west of State Road 37 South.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misidentified the law enforcement agency.

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