CRAWFORD COUNTY : Trench being dug caves in, killing one
Posted on Saturday, June 28, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/229903/
VAN BUREN — One man was killed and another injured when a trench collapsed near Van Buren on Friday.
The names of the men were not being released pending family notification, said Cpl. Aaron Beshears, a detective with the Crawford County sheriff’s office.
Emergency personnel from several agencies worked more than three hours to free a man who jumped into the 10-foot ditch to try to save his co-worker, Beshears said. The accident occurred at the corner of Shibley and Hilltop roads, east of Van Buren.
Beshears said the would-be rescuer became trapped to his waist and suffered injuries to his legs. Emergency workers were waiting late Friday afternoon for a trench box so that the deceased man could be pulled from beneath water and rock.
Workers tried to keep the man alive by cutting an inch-wide plastic gas line and inserting it into his mouth for air, Beshears said. It was not immediately clear as to whether he perished from drowning or being crushed, he said.
Beshears said he didn’t know what the crew from Russellvillebased Kirby Specialties was working on. A ruptured water main filled the ditch and contributed to its collapse, he said.
Excavation equipment also contributed to the collapse and could not be used in the rescue, Beshears said. The effort was further hindered by generators used to run pumps to remove water from the trench, he said.
Vibrations from the generators as well as trains passing nearby further compromised the integrity of the trench walls. Beshears said that the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad line had to be shut down during the rescue effort.
Management of Kirby Specialties was not available as they were traveling to the site, a woman who answered the phone at its Russellville office said.
A representative from the Little Rock office of the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration was being sent to the scene.