Rescuer says workers crushed by heavy soil (Deadliest involving road construction workers in Ne.)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10431295

Published Friday September 12, 2008
Rescuer says workers crushed by heavy soil
BY ELIZABETH AHLIN and JASON KUIPER
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITERS

Brad Mahon could see two of the four men trapped in the trench — their backs out of the damp dirt. But the rural Verdel, Neb., farmer and other rescuers couldn't free them.


This photo looks down the hill at the Nebraska Highway 12 construction site near Verdel, Neb.


The first man trapped inside was working on a drainage trench in northeast Nebraska Friday morning when it collapsed on him. Three co-workers who tried to rescue him then became trapped.

Mahon, 29, was among the first to arrive after the collapse. He had just dropped off tools at a family farm near the site, about three miles west of Verdel, when he saw a Boyd County sheriff's cruiser speeding with flashing lights into Knox County.

He followed the cruiser and an ambulance to the construction site he had passed maybe 10 minutes before on Nebraska Highway 12. At the bottom of the hill, he saw the two men. To him, they looked like they had been buried in five feet of dirt.


Another look near the hill where Friday's cave-in occurred.


"That's what's so disheartening," Mahon said. "If (they) were under 10 feet of dirt . . . They were so close to the top."

Mahon joined six emergency workers at the bottom of the hill, trying to free the men.

Friday's accident may be one of the deadliest involving road construction workers in Nebraska history.

"Most likely it is, but I haven't reviewed those records and I can't tell you just off the top of my head," said Ben Bare, area director for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which sent an investigator to the accident site.

Authorities identified the workers who died as Travis Lunn, 24, and David Peterson, 35, both of O'Neill, Neb.; Gary Forsch, 61, of Spencer, Neb.; and Brad Kelly, 43, of Lynch, Neb. Autopsies will be performed in Douglas County.

The men were working for John Prouty Construction Inc. of O'Neill on a road project along Nebraska Highway 12 near Verdel, said company dispatcher Steve Reynoldson. Crews had been working there all summer, excavating in an effort to divert water away from the highway, Reynoldson said.

FULL story at link.

[liberal renegade]

1. what a bummer!

RIP.