Tacoma man killed when car jack fails. His wife shares her pain to educate others
The family of a Tacoma man this week shared the story of his recent death to prevent similar accidents from taking another life.
Devin Harris, 33, was working to repair a relative’s vehicle at his home Sunday (Feb. 9) when the car jack failed.
His family later discovered him dead, suffocated from injuries sustained under the vehicle’s weight.
His wife, Tia Harris, spoke to The News Tribune on Thursday (Feb. 13). Her emotions were still raw from the trauma.
But, she said, it was important to her to try to save lives after the tragedy because she knows firsthand it can happen to anyone.
It had even happened to Harris one time before.
“In 2011 he was working on a transmission in my dad’s car, and the car rolled and fell off the jack stand,” she recalled. “We were there, three of us adults and one of our children. I was 6 months pregnant ....”
Her immediate reaction then was to try and lift the car.
With what breath he had left, she recalled him whispering, “Tia don’t lift the car.”
“My dad got a jack and jacked it up, and we got him to the hospital.”
He survived that accident but sustained serious injuries.
“He got lucky,” she said.
After that, Harris bought a car lift “and always used it,” his wife said.
Harris worked for an area U-Haul service/repair shop as a mechanic specialist, starting with oil changes and brake service on its moving trucks before advancing to repairing the fleet, “doing everything,” she said. “He loved the work, couldn’t be happier.”
As for his U-Haul co-workers, they quickly “became our family,” Tia Harris said.
Meanwhile, off the clock and known for his repair skills, he routinely was asked to work on the vehicles of friends, neighbors, relatives, or others. There seemed to always be someone who could use his help.
It was a good way to make extra money for his family, Tia Harris said.
“If you walk through our neighborhood, you’ll find 10 people whose car he’s fixed at some point,” she said. “Sometimes they paid, and sometimes he just did it out of the kindness of his heart.
“He had so much going on and such a passion for restoring cars.”
There already was a car on the lift he couldn’t take down Sunday when he decided to do a quick fix on just one more to help his relative, so he used a jack and jack stand.
“He said it would only take about 20 minutes .... “ Tia Harris said, struggling to talk about what followed.
While he worked outside, relatives gathered inside his family’s Central Tacoma home to make Valentine’s Day crafts.
His 13-year-old nephew and Harris’ oldest son discovered him about 20 minutes later.
Using the jack proved to be a fatal mistake.
“He just got in a hurry and wanted to help everybody and didn’t use proper equipment,” Tia Harris said.
A GoFundMe page organized by family friend Patricia Jolley, also of Tacoma, noted his selflessness:
“Chances are, if you knew Devin, he had either worked on your vehicle, advised you on how to work on your vehicle yourself, or helped someone you know in one or both of those ways. He was always willing to jump in and help others, and could make friends with anyone he met.”
Devin Harris died two days before his birthday.
“We had presents already wrapped for him,” his wife said.
His U-Haul co-workers stepped in to assist with groceries and day-to-day items for the short term.
The goal, according to company representatives reached Friday, was to help get the family set up for a month, complete with a gift card.
“We all wanted to help the family out however we could,” said Elizabeth Carter, executive assistant for U-Haul Company of South Puget Sound, via email on Friday, “to help the family not have to worry about some necessities as well as the death of their family member.”
Tia Harris said she was going public with her family’s tragedy because it is important for people to know her husband’s story.
“My husband was our hero, and I don’t want this to happen to anyone else — to lose their dad or soulmate or their friend, their uncle or brother,” she said. “Nothing anyone can do for me or say will bring him back.
“Maybe we can take comfort in preventing this from happening to someone else.”
How to help
A GoFundMe campaign for those who seek to make donations to the family is at gf.me/u/xju7qc
This story was originally published February 15, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
