Fort Smith’s hazmat team was called to Mansfield on Monday night after a truck driver was found dead inside his vehicle in a grocery store parking lot., our content partner 40/29 News reported.
BLAIR, a trucking company and the deceased’s employer, asked for a welfare check on the driver. He was found dead in the Harps parking lot on Monday afternoon, Sebastian County Deputy Emergency Manager Travis Cooper said.
Authorities said the driver, whom they did not name, had likely been in the truck for days. Responders said the truck had been in the Harps parking lot since last Friday.
BLAIR told emergency crews that the driver had recently been out of the country and may have contracted an unknown illness.
“He did make a stop in Oklahoma at a hospital—not sure exactly how long he was there for, but we do know that he possibly was ill at that given time—source unknown—but he did end up here in Mansfield headed to the lumber yard to get a load. He never got the load. He parked his truck here. And then, we learned that he was also out of the country. We don’t know what there may be within this individual, of what he came in contact with, but we just want to take precautionary actions.”
As a precaution, emergency services asked for help from the hazmat team and cordoned off the parking lot from the public.
Cooper said there was no threat to anyone inside the Mansfield Harps.
The Scott County Medical Examiner and Coroner will discern how the truck driver died.
As of Monday evening, authorities had not yet determined the driver’s cause of death.
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