Worker Killed When Tractor Overturns

A 37-year-old man working on a ranch outside Newbury Park was killed Friday when the tractor he was driving flipped over and crushed him, authorities said.

Misael T. Oliva of Moorpark was hauling a load of manure on the Mike Curb Ranch in the 1400 block of Hidden Valley Road when he lost control on a steep embankment, authorities said.

Employees began looking for Oliva about 2 p.m. and found him pinned under the vehicle, Ventura County Sheriff’s Capt. Rod Thompson said.

Oliva was pronounced dead at the scene.

Thompson said heavy equipment was brought in to lift the tractor off Oliva. The cause of the accident was under investigation by Cal-OSHA.

It is the latest in a string of industrial accidents in the county this year.

Two employees of a citrus orchard outside Fillmore were found dead Aug. 2 inside a fertilizer tank. Authorities believe the pair crawled into the tank to clean it and were overcome by toxic fumes.

On April 23, an industrial worker from Santa Paula died from lack of oxygen after an accident involving a tractor two days earlier.

And on Jan. 8, one man was killed and two seriously injured during a pipe-testing explosion at an oil company in Ventura.