Equipment driver dies in horrific accident at dairy waste pond

MABTON, Wash. (AP) — The Yakima County sheriff's office says a worker at a Mabton-area dairy farm died Wednesday when the front-end loader he was driving sank into a pond of waste water.

The 27-year-old Mabton man was unable to free himself from the enclosed cab of the loader after the wheels went off the shoulder and fell on its side into the waste.

The operator was dead when deputies arrived and pulled him out.

The state Department of Labor and Industries is investigating the industrial accident.