Tow truck hits, kills Parking Authority employee

A Philadelphia Parking Authority employee died this morning when he got pinned under a tow truck as it backed up in South Philadelphia, police said.

Jeffrey Bayers, 60, a lot officer at the impound lot who had worked for the PPA for 13 years, died at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital at 8:48 a.m., nearly two hours after the accident in a PPA lot on Weccacoe Avenue just south of the Ikea shopping center, police said. Bayers, of Maple Shade, N.J., was married with two grown sons and a 13-year-old daughter, PPA spokesman Marty O'Rourke said. He was nearing the end of his overnight shift when he was hit, O'Rourke said.

The tow truck driver also was a PPA employee, O'Rourke added. The incident appears to be an accident, he said. Police continue investigating.