Local

Coroner IDs Columbus 19 year old crushed by car he was working under

A 19-year-old Columbus man was crushed Wednesday when the supports he placed under a car he was working under failed, and the vehicle fell atop him, the coroner said.

Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan said he was called about 2:20 p.m. to the Bond Avenue home in Oakland Park off South Lumpkin Road, where he pronounced Quintavious Williams dead 15 minutes later.

The cause of death was blunt-force trauma to the chest, Bryan said.

He said Williams had used a rusted scissor jack to raise the vehicle, and then stacked bricks under it for additional support. Williams had removed the right front passenger’s tire to work under that part of the car, the coroner said.

The aging jack failed, causing the car to move so that the stacked bricks shifted and came apart, and the vehicle pinned Williams underneath, Bryan said.

Similar mishaps have caused other fatalities, Bryan said. Authorities caution residents to ensure the supports under vehicles being repaired are stable and substantial, and that the tires are chocked to keep automobiles from rolling onto anyone working under them.

Tim Chitwood
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
Tim Chitwood is from Seale, Alabama, and started as a police beat reporter with the Ledger-Enquirer in 1982. He since has covered Columbus’ serial killings and other homicides, following some from the scene of the crime to trial verdicts and ensuing appeals. He also has been a Ledger-Enquirer humor columnist since 1987. He’s a graduate of Auburn University, and started out working for the weekly Phenix Citizen in Phenix City, Ala.
Get unlimited digital access
#ReadLocal

Try 1 month for $1

CLAIM OFFER