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Construction worker dies in drilling accident Posted: Wednesday, Jan 17, 2007 - 09:15:45 am PST By KEITH KINNAIRD News editor
Victim's identity not released Tuesday SANDPOINT -- A worker was killed Tuesday morning after apparently being pulled into a piece of drilling equipment at a construction project on the shore of Lake Pend Oreille.Sandpoint Fire Chief Robert Tyler said the 24-year-old man's name was being withheld pending notification of relatives. Police Chief Mark Lockwood told KPND radio the victim was from the Spokane, Wash., area. The accident happened shortly after 8 a.m. outside The Seasons, a condominium development north of City Beach. Tyler said a three-man crew was drilling into the ground with a large track-mounted drill when one of them became entangled in the device.
The man's clothing reportedly snagged on the drilling mechanism, though Tyler said the cause of the accident remains under investigation. "Details surrounding the incident are sketchy and we don't have the exact cause of the incident," said Tyler. Sandpoint Police detectives were interviewing shaken coworkers on Tuesday. "I know law enforcement was working very hard the whole time we were down there to gather and interview those people," Tyler said. Lockwood was not immediately available for comment on Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety & Health Administration is also investigating the accident, said Jerry Hockett, OSHA's area director in Boise. "I don't have much information on it at this point," Hockett said on early Tuesday afternoon. "We have an investigator en route." Tyler did not have information on the victim's employer and it was not immediately clear what exactly the crew was working on. Tyler described the drilling apparatus as being similar to heavy equipment used to extract underground core samples. The Seasons' developer, BVG Incorporated of Tampa, Fla., released no further details on Tuesday and said it was still awaiting further information about the accident. "We are extremely saddened by this tragic event and our deepest sympathies go out to the person's family," BVG President Jae Heinberg said in a statement to The Daily Bee. Tuesday's incident is the first fatal industrial accident in the city of Sandpoint since July 26, 1993, according to records kept by Dale Coffelt, who served as Bonner County's coroner from 1972 to 2003. That incident involved a worker who fell into a wood chipper at the Lousiana-Pacific sawmill, which once stood at the corner of Larch Street and Boyer Avenue. Countywide, the drilling accident is the third fatal industrial accident in as many years. A 47-year-old Sagle man was killed in July 2005 when the ditch he was working in collapsed at a construction project near the city of Kootenai. A 66-year-old Sandpoint man died in March 2006 when the bulldozer he was operating overturned near Bottle Bay. POST YOUR OPINION
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Bonner County Daily Bee
P.O. Box 159 / Sandpoint, Idaho 83864 / 208-263-9534
Bonner County Daily Bee Online is updated at 10am PST.
Bill Doyle wrote on Feb 16, 2007 9:36 AM: