Pizza Delivery Man Dies After Customer's Porch Collapses Under Him
A pizza delivery man tragically died on Saturday in Indiana after falling through a customer's porch while delivering an order.
William Fields, a 45-year-old father, was reportedly a well-liked figure in the community and a familiar face for customers at local restaurant Pizza King.
Police responded to a 911 call at around 11:30 p.m. to a house in Connersville for an injured person. Officers found Fields motionless and pinned down by heavy debris in front of the address.
The Connersville Fire Department and Fayette County EMS extricated Fields and attempted life-saving measures, but he was pronounced deceased at a Connersville hospital.
Investigators, many of whom knew Fields from his delivery role, have ruled the death an accident and are not investigating further.
In the released 911 call, as per WISH-TV, the homeowner can be heard telling the operator: "Half of it broke, he's lying about 5 feet deep under it."
According to local residents, Fields was known in the community and had been working at Pizza King for 30 years. Pizza King co-worker Wanda Reed told WISH-TV that Fields was in fact so popular that customers would request he deliver their pizza.
"Some of them would ask who was the driver tonight and you would tell them William, we called him Billy, and they said, 'okay, just tell him to knock on the door and come on in' or whatever, and he would just come on in," she said.
Police also told WISH-TV that the accident should serve as a reminder for all homeowners. "This is a tragic reminder to all of us that we do bear responsibility for our property and we want home owners to be responsible in that regard, to try to prevent any accidents like that in the future from happening," said Sgt. Clint Brown.
Despite being somewhat of a rarity, incidents of porch deaths have been publicized previously. 2003 saw the largest porch collapse in U.S. history, as 13 died and more than 50 were injured during a porch party in Chicago.
A third-floor balcony gave way, caving into the second-floor porch and falling to the ground floor and basement stairwell. At first, overcrowding was blamed but it was later ruled that the porch on the building was bigger than code allowed and had been built improperly and without permits.
Building inspectors also never cited these violations before the collapse. At the time, an architect told the city that it wouldn't have happened if the porch had been built to code, as reported by the Chicago Tribune.
