A Portland maintenance and solid waste worker who was killed in an accident at the end of his shift Sunday was going to become a father for the second time next month.
Martin Tuan Dinh, 46, lived in South Portland and was married with one son, according to an obituary provided by his family. His wife, Tu Anh Thi Nguyen, is due to give birth to a second child on Sept. 4.
Dinh was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the United States in the 1990s, ultimately settling in the Portland area, the obit says.
Dinh’s family declined to talk about him or the apparent accident after the city confirmed his death Tuesday.
City officials said Tuesday that fellow city employees were “mourning Martin’s death, and praying for his wife and family during this extremely difficult time.”
Dinh had been employed by the city since August 2018.
On Sunday, he was finishing his shift emptying municipal trash barrels in the downtown area and had driven his trash truck back to the city’s yard at District Road off outer Congress Street. About 10 a.m., Dinh got out of the city-owned truck and was then somehow killed by it. A resident discovered Dinh about 1 p.m., the city said.
Portland spokeswoman Jessica Grondin characterized the death as an accident, but has said she could not provide any more details about how Dinh was killed. The investigation into the circumstances of his death could take weeks, Grondin said Wednesday.
Grondin couldn’t recall the last time a city worker had died on the job.
Portland police and the state Medical Examiner’s Office responded to the death, and officers with the department’s traffic division were reconstructing the incident to determine what happened.
The site at District Road is home base for two groups of workers in the Department of Public Works, comprising about 40 people divided between a water resources group and a solid waste group. Administrators of the solid waste group work at a small office on the site, and all maintenance employees who operate trash trucks start and end their day there, Grondin said.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 23 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland. Visiting hours will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday at Jones Rich & Barnes Funeral Home in Portland.
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