Overview
- A slope collapse at a private worksite on the Antigua Tijuana–Tecate road buried two workers Tuesday afternoon, leaving a 38-year-old man trapped in a roughly four-meter trench.
- Tijuana firefighters led a specialized trench rescue using shoring techniques and a backhoe while municipal police cordoned the scene and Cruz Roja paramedics provided on-site medical support during the operation.
- After roughly 16 hours of work, rescuers recovered the trapped worker’s body early Wednesday and turned it over to authorities; his co-worker escaped the collapse without serious injury.
- The College of Civil Engineers in Tijuana warned the case suggests possible failures to apply required protections such as shoring, sloping, or other wall-retention systems for excavations.
- Beyond immediate cause-of-death determinations, the incident highlights how shallow excavation risks, worksite oversight, and traffic-related delays to emergency access can affect rescue outcomes and may prompt local safety reviews.