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.
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.
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 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 the man and the special response was canceled.
The worker suffered injuries to his lower body but is in stable condition, the sheriff’s office says.
Then 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.
