A 20-year-old father of two was killed Wednesday morning when a railcar derailed and overturned at the Hardy Farms plant in Durant, Oklahoma. Axcell Hernandez was part of a crew loading and moving railcars that were not connected to or being moved by an engine when the accident happened. According to police, a derailer device was in place to prevent the cars from rolling onto an active railway. Hernandez was trapped underneath the overturned car and had to be recovered using specialized equipment.
The Durant Police Department is treating the death as a workplace accident. Sgt. Nick Spencer said witnesses on scene confirmed a male employee of a local business had been trapped underneath the railcar. Police say they located the overturned car and worked with responders to recover the victim. Hardy Farms has declined to comment on the incident.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating alongside local authorities. A young father died on a routine work day, and the questions are straightforward: what exactly happened, and what safety protocols were in place when it did? Regardless of how far away Oklahoma is, thousands of families around Florida’s Suncoast depend on industrial and rail-adjacent jobs every day. What do you want to see come out of this investigation? Let us know in the comments.
