Authorities are trying to determine the cause of an accident earlier this week in Riverbank, California that claimed that claimed the life of a sanitation worker.

News sources say 30-year-old Ismael Martinez-Huertas, a father of two, was crushed by a hydraulic mechanism on a garbage truck Monday afternoon. Martinez-Huertas was reportedly found pinned between the body of the truck and the arm that dumps the cans into the hopper.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that Martinez-Huertas was trying to retrieve a trash can that fell inside the hopper when the accident occurred. Sheriff’s deputies said the truck was running when they arrived on scene.

Martinez-Huertas had worked at Gilton Solid Waste Management for three months and had been operating the truck on his own for about five weeks. Reports have surfaced that Martinez-Huertas had complained that the arm on the truck had been malfunctioning and dropping garbage cans, spilling trash on the ground.

Cal/OSHA is investigating the incident.