Two Men Rescued After Trench Collapses
Published: September 8, 2003
Two men were freed eight hours after a dirt trench collapsed around them.
SLIDESHOW
Trench Rescue
Brett Ray and Casey Williamson became trapped after the trench they were working in, caved in on them as they were laying irrigation pipes at the Lakewood Country Club, in Rockville, Md.
Initially Ray was buried up to his chest. His coworkers jumped in after him and started shoveling. “He couldn’t breath when we first got there because it collapsed all around his chest,” said construction worker Dwight Cashdollar.
When Montgomery County Fire and Rescue workers arrived, they decided the trench was too unstable to enter. “Over 50 percent of the time if it collapsed once, it will collapse a second time,” said Chief Tom Carr with the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Department.
Before rescue workers attempted to free the trapped men, they brought in a trench box to shore up the sides and keep them from collapsing further on the two men who stuck there as well as the rescue workers. By then, Ray was buried up to his waist and Williamson was buried up to his knees.
At about 5 p.m., Williamson was pulled from the trench and taken to the hospital. Two hours later, Ray was freed and flown by helicopter to Baltimore Shock-Trauma.
Investigators with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are now looking to see if there were any code violations.
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