Overview
- Rescue crews recovered the trapped worker after several hours of operations Friday and the person was pronounced dead at the scene.
- Firefighters found an eight-foot trench that had collapsed at an excavation site near Lake Road and Hickman Road in Stanislaus County.
- More than 30 firefighters and technical rescue personnel responded and shifted the operation from a rescue to a recovery after assessing the danger.
- The Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office and Cal/OSHA are investigating the collapse and officials have not released the victim’s identity or named the company doing the work.
- Trench collapses are a known high-risk hazard in excavation work and Cal/OSHA inspections can lead to citations or enforcement if investigators find safety lapses, which is what authorities will be looking for next.