Frisco Enterprise > News
Construction accident near Main Street results in fatality (updated)
By Anthony Tosie, atosie@starlocalnews.com, @anthonytosie on Twitter
Editor's Note: This article was originally published at 4:29 p.m. Jan. 28 and updated at 5:35 p.m. the same day. It has been updated again to include new information.
A construction worker died Monday afternoon when a trench near Main Street collapsed.
Frisco firefighters responded to the incident at about 4 p.m. but were unable to rescue the man, who has not yet been positively identified. The trench the man was working in is located next to Farm-to-Market Road 3537.
A city official released a statement at 4:59 p.m. confirming the worker had died. Allen firefighters arrived on the scene shortly after that time to assist Frisco firefighters as Allen's fire department maintains trench rescue equipment that serves the region.
Lt. J.E. Jenkins of the Frisco Police Department said police were on hand to document the scene, although it won't be handling an investigation.
"Because this was a construction accident, we don't do an investigation as we would if it were a criminal incident," he said. "We just document the scene and make sure there was no foul play -- this was strictly an unfortunate construction accident."
Construction at the scene has been ongoing to install a water line. The trench the man was working in unexpectedly caved in on him, although the cause of the collapse is not known.
The United States Department of Labor's Occupational Safety & Health Administration began working the incident after it was reported as a fatality to determine the cause, although a spokesman said a full report may take weeks to complete.
"OSHA has started an investigation, but it's not yet complete," said Juan Rodriguez, a spokesman for the agency. "We can only confirm we began investigating the incident [Monday] at this time."
As a result of the incident, Main Street from Hillcrest to Coit was closed the rest of the afternoon and most of the night. The street reopened Tuesday morning.
"With Main Street being a two-lane road with no shoulders or anything like that, we had to shut down the road," Jenkins said. "That was our main purpose -- we couldn't have everyone going around the scene while firefighters were working."
A construction worker died Monday afternoon when a trench near Main Street collapsed.
Frisco firefighters responded to the incident at about 4 p.m. but were unable to rescue the man, who has not yet been positively identified. The trench the man was working in is located next to Farm-to-Market Road 3537.
A city official released a statement at 4:59 p.m. confirming the worker had died. Allen firefighters arrived on the scene shortly after that time to assist Frisco firefighters as Allen's fire department maintains trench rescue equipment that serves the region.
Lt. J.E. Jenkins of the Frisco Police Department said police were on hand to document the scene, although it won't be handling an investigation.
"Because this was a construction accident, we don't do an investigation as we would if it were a criminal incident," he said. "We just document the scene and make sure there was no foul play -- this was strictly an unfortunate construction accident."
Construction at the scene has been ongoing to install a water line. The trench the man was working in unexpectedly caved in on him, although the cause of the collapse is not known.
The United States Department of Labor's Occupational Safety & Health Administration began working the incident after it was reported as a fatality to determine the cause, although a spokesman said a full report may take weeks to complete.
"OSHA has started an investigation, but it's not yet complete," said Juan Rodriguez, a spokesman for the agency. "We can only confirm we began investigating the incident [Monday] at this time."
As a result of the incident, Main Street from Hillcrest to Coit was closed the rest of the afternoon and most of the night. The street reopened Tuesday morning.
"With Main Street being a two-lane road with no shoulders or anything like that, we had to shut down the road," Jenkins said. "That was our main purpose -- we couldn't have everyone going around the scene while firefighters were working."
Copyright © 2013 - Star Local News