Article taken from the Press Enterprise (http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_H_trench26.434b97b.html)
Trench collapse in Banning kills Hesperia man
08:58 AM PDT on Wednesday, March 26, 2008
By MICHAEL PERRAULT
The Press-Enterprise
Video: Worker killed in Banning trench collapse
A 37-year-old electrical worker died Tuesday morning when a trench collapsed around him while he was working on an underground power line to connect electrical substations in Banning.
Martin Samaniego, of Hesperia, was killed in the collapse, police officials said.
The collapse occurred about 10:40 a.m. as a crew from Riverside-based Pouk & Steinle Inc. worked in a shored-up trench in the west lane of Ramsey Street, east of Highlands Springs Avenue.
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Greg Vojtko / The Press-Enterprise
Emergency personnel assess the situation before recovery efforts begin at the scene of a trench collapse on Ramsey Street on Tuesday in Banning. According to Cal Fire Capt. Julie Hutchinson, who was at scene, rescuers worried that the trench could collapse further.
About six hours later, as rescue workers were about to remove Samaniego's body, the trench walls collapsed a second time.
Samaniego's body was recovered at about 9:25 p.m., according to the Riverside County Fire Department Web site.
More than 50 Riverside County firefighters, paramedics and other emergency workers were summoned to the scene at 10:44 a.m., minutes after the collapse, said Capt. Julie Hutchinson, a spokeswoman for Cal Fire.
They could see only Samaniego's shoulder almost seven feet below the street's surface, inside a 15-foot-long by 4-foot-wide trench. The walls continued to collapse, so rescuers had to wait for more equipment to be brought in to stabilize the trench, Hutchinson said.
Firefighters used a hoist on a Moreno Valley ladder truck to lower a paramedic into the trench. The paramedic found that Samaniego had died.
With more shoring in place, recovery of Samaniego's body was to begin about 5 p.m. when the second collapse occurred.
"We don't know a whole lot yet right now as to what might have happened," said Mark Hanson, a spokesman for Pouk & Steinle. "It's just a tragedy."
A team of investigators from state Department of Occupational Safety and Health and law enforcement agencies spent much of the afternoon inspecting the scene.
"OSHA will have to determine if there was adequate shoring," Hutchinson said. "Sometimes even if you do everything right, the sand and dirt are just like water."
Pouk & Steinle was awarded the contract to build an electrical conduit to a new $14 million electrical substation between Mountain Avenue and Highland Home Road, north of Wilson Street, said Jim Earhart, Banning's electrical utility director.
"Obviously we're concerned," Earhart said. "There will be a lot of investigation."
The project to link the existing substation and the new one has been under way about three months and is intended to supply power to residents on the west side of Banning.
Last year, Pouk & Steinle was fined almost $50,000 by CAL-OSHA after three people died as a result of a job-site accident in Upland. OSHA cited the company for violations that included failure to provide adequate safety instructions to new employees and failure by the work crew to warn motorists and direct them past a nighttime project.
In the December 2006, a Pouk & Steinle's work crew had positioned a 75-foot-long power pole several feet above an Upland street and was guiding it into position when it was struck by a car.
The 81-year-old driver and one of the workers were killed. An 80-year-old female passenger died several weeks later.
A Pouk & Steinle spokesman declined last year to comment on the fines, saying that the case was in litigation.
Reach Michael Perrault at 909-806-3053 or mperrault@PE.com |
