Trench collapse kills worker

By This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Thursday, July 29, 2004

Police officers and firefighters, feverishly digging on hands and knees with bare hands and shovels, were able to save one of two construction workers trapped Wednesday when a trench collapsed in Beaver County.

But their efforts were not enough to save the second worker who was buried up to his neck in the collapse in the Bradford Park neighborhood of Economy, where a sewerage project is under way.

It was the third fatal trench collapse in the region since December. All occurred in unprotected ditches not secured by metal trench boxes or other types of shoring.

Marion Edward "Butch" Peters, 61, of Wexford Bayne Road in Franklin Park, a worker for Kowal's Excavation & Trench Service, was pronounced dead about an hour after the trench collapsed in the back yard of a home along Silverdale Drive, deputy Beaver County Coroner Skip Haswell said.

The owner of the company, Roger Kowal, 50, of Amsler Ridge Road, Economy, was flown to UPMC Presbyterian hospital in Oakland with leg injuries, STAT MedEvac spokesman John Chamberlin said.

Peters, Kowal and Kowal's son, Jonathan, were installing a connecting line from the home of a private residence when the trench, estimated to be about 8 feet deep, collapsed at 3:38 p.m., Economy police Chief Tom Harrington said.

Jonathan Kowal, who called 911, apparently was not in the trench at the time.

Harrington, Sgt. Jerry Droz and patrolmen Chris Foley, Jason Woods and Doug Carney arrived before firefighters and began trying to free Kowal, who was buried to the waist, and Peters, who was buried up to his neck in heavy, wet clay.

"There were two guys in the hole with a lot of dirt on them yelling for help," Foley said. "It looked like one side caved in and pinned them against the other wall. I know Mr. Kowal. I told him it would be OK, and we'd get him out."

"I didn't think a lot about the wall coming in. I was trying to help," Droz said. "Mr. Peters kept asking how Roger was. Roger kept asking how Mr. Peters was."

Jonathan Kowal and Carney began using Kowal's backhoe to dig, but were forced to stop because the vibrations were causing the ground to crack, sparking fears of a secondary collapse, Harrington said.

Peters was already turning blue when volunteer firefighters from Economy, Baden and Marshall began arriving at 3:53 p.m. and "working like crazy to put walls up," to protect the rescue workers, Economy fire Chief Jake Thomas said.

Other fire departments and private companies were called to provide shoring materials.

Kowal was freed at 4:15 p.m. Paramedics placed an oxygen mask on Peters and later inserted a breathing tube down his throat to help him breath.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating. Federal law requires all ditches more than 5 feet deep to have protective shoring.

Thomas said the borough is in the final phase of a community-wide sewerage project. The main lines have been installed, and homeowners are hiring private contractors to provide the tap-in service, he said.

It was the fifth trench collapse in the region since November.

American Enterprise Contracting Inc., of McKees Rocks, was fined by OSHA for a collapse that killed William Lee Steadman, 37, of Mt. Oliver, in December. William Partin, 39, of North Fayette, died and another worker was injured in a trench collapse last month in Washington County.

One worker was injured in a November trench collapse in White Oak and a second was hurt earlier this month when a ditch collapsed in West View.