ORION TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WXYZ) — A man has died and two other men have been injured in three separate trench collapse incidents at construction sites in Southeast Michigan this week.
On Wednesday around 2:30 p.m., the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office says it responded to a commercial site in Handy Township near Grand River Avenue and Nicholson Road.
Watch Jolie Sherman's video report below:
Investigators say employees were placing underground tanks in a trench. The trench collapsed while a 23-year-old man was working, trapping him. Deputies and workers pulled the man from the trench and tried saving his life. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
“I pray for family. I just pray for the family,” said Michelle Bailey, who works at Grand Nickel Party Store.
Bailey was working when the trench behind the business collapsed. Grand Nickel Party Store is expanding into a gas station and has construction work going on.
“One of our workers was inside the hole, and they were trying to put the tanks in and the wall collapsed right on top of him," Bailey said. “It’s hard for all of us, but especially the family and the father. The father had to witness that.”
"Both him and his father worked on the construction crew."
We reached out to the construction company, Dynamic Construction Brothers but did not hear back.
Several agencies in the area responded to the scene.
Earlier in the day, another trench collapsed in Orion Township at a new subdivision that’s under construction, trapping a 25-year-old Clarkston man who was working at the site.
The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office and the Orion Township Fire Department responded to the site near Squirrel and Silverbell roads around 9:41 a.m.
Deputies say a subcontracted excavation company was excavating during a sanitary sewer installation project. The ground gave way while the 25-year-old Davin was inside a trench box and he was trapped below the waist.
Rescue teams were dispatched to the site, but coworkers and first responders freed Davin and the special response was canceled.
“He said usually the ground holds. But for some reason, it just caved in the blink of an eye and before he knew it, he was half buried,” said Jordan Ford, Davin’s sister.
Davin suffered injuries to his lower body but is in stable condition.
Ford says her brother was buried up to his waist and trapped under several hundred pounds of clay.
She says he didn’t suffer severe injuries but is now out of the hospital and using a cane to support himself as he recovers.
“He was in a situation that could have ended much differently, and I just thank God that he came out on the right side of things,” Ford said.
Just one day before on Tuesday, a 35-year-old was rescued after a trench collapsed at a construction site in Oxford Township.
The Ira Township man was working at the site when he became trapped around 9:25 a.m. on Barber Road near Oakwood Road. The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office and Oxford Fire Department responded to the scene.
Workers were installing field tile for a septic tank project, investigators said. The man was gluing pipe together when a trench wall collapsed and buried him. Deputies and firefighters pulled the man out. He was taken to the hospital and is in stable condition.
The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating all three collapses.
