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Fire and police units responded to a construction site at 4900 Tremley Point Road, where the excavator had fallen into the Arthur Kill River Channel -- the operator inside a small pocket of air around 8 a.m., Linden police said in a release.
The man was removed from the machine cab sometime around 9 a.m. by NYPD aviation divers. The construction worker was rushed to Trinitas Regional Medical Center, and later pronounced dead, CBS reports.
The backhoe that the man had been operating somehow ended up on its side in the water, according to Fire Chief William Hasko.
Water temps were approximately 40 degrees and hypothermia is believed to have played a factor in the man's death, Hasko told CBS.
Assisting agencies included the United States Coast Guard, New Jersey State Police Marine Unit, New York City Police Department Air Search & Rescue Unit, members of the New Jersey Marine Task Force, Rescue Units from the Elizabeth and Rahway Fire Departments, the Union, Cranford, and Perth Amboy Fire Departments, and Paramedics from RWJBH Rahway Hospital.
The incident remains under investigation by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (O.S.H.A)
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