Bro’s shock, pain
Mourns immg victim of dump truck tragedy
A heartbroken Guatemalan immigrant arrived too late for goodbyes after his soccer-loving sibling died in a Brooklyn dump truck accident.
Diego Mejia, 40, recounted his desperate effort to see his kid brother Friday at Kings County Hospital, only to find 24-year-old Saqueo Mejia had already passed — leaving him to make arrangements for the body’s return home for burial.
“I was shook,” the older brother said Saturday after making a video call to their parents in Guatemala with the crushing news. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Dump truck driver Saqueo Mejia was standing behind his own vehicle in East Flatbush around 1:30 p.m. as a second truck began backing up, momentarily pinning him between the two, police said. The other truck driver, alerted by witnesses to the tragedy, quickly
pulled forward as the young victim fell to the ground.
Medics arrived to find him lying unconscious on the ground, and
their last-ditch efforts to resuscitate the victim failed. The accident occurred as the trucks were weighing loads of recycling, according to police.
Saqueo Mejia, an employee of Brooklyn-based Prime Junk Removal, came to Brooklyn five years ago and regularly sent money home to support his parents and five brothers still in Guatemala. He lived in Sunset Park with Diego and one of their nephews, and loved to spend his spare time playing soccer with friends.
According to friend Rafael Carrillo, the victim was on his lunch break when a co-worker asked him to close the truck’s back gate just prior to the crash outside the DeCostole Recycling and Transfer Station.
The 31-year-old driver remained on the scene, and no criminal charges were immediately filed.
Prime Junk Removal was closed Saturday and a DeCostole employee declined comment Friday.
Diego Mejia was left Saturday to find a way to return his brother to their homeland for the last time.
“I’m just looking for help to get the body back to Guatemala,” he said.