A New Mexico man died in a construction site accident involving heavy equipment north of Russell.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, at 2:02 PM Tuesday, a Caterpillar 940B loader driven by 28-year-old Tyler Darren Jennings of Valley Falls, Kansas was driving north up a hill at a construction site just east of US Highway 281 north of the Saline River.

For unknown reasons, the vehicle lost power.

The vehicle rolled down the hill to the south and struck a Caterpillar 940B loader driven by 57-year-old Jose N. Ramirez Navarrete.

An occupant of the second vehicle, 53-year-old Hector Cesar Fraire Montelongo of Mesquite, New Mexico, was killed in the collision.

It’s unknown if the fatality subject was on the second vehicle’s platform or on the ground next to the vehicle at the time of the collision.

EagleMed transported Fraire Montelongo by helicopter to Russell Regional Hospital where he was pronounced deceased.

The equipment drivers were not injured.

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Story / Photo by David Elliott via KRSL Radio