HANDY TOWNSHIP, Michigan — A young construction worker is dead after a trench collapsed on top of him at a commercial job site in Livingston County — the third such collapse to strike Southeast Michigan in less than 48 hours.
The Livingston County Sheriff’s Office says deputies responded to a site on Grand River Avenue and Nicholson Road at around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Workers at the site were installing underground tanks when the trench gave way, trapping the 23-year-old man beneath the soil.
Deputies and fellow workers managed to pull him out and immediately began life-saving measures. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Two Other Workers Hurt in Oakland County — Both in the Same Morning
The deadly collapse came just one day after two similar incidents unfolded in Oakland County — just miles away.
On Tuesday morning, a 35-year-old man from Ira Township was installing field tile for a septic system on Barber Road when his trench collapsed and buried him. Deputies and the Oxford Fire Department pulled him free. He is listed in stable condition.
Less than 24 hours later, a 25-year-old Clarkston man became trapped when a trench caved in at a subdivision construction site in Orion Township. A subcontracted excavation crew was preparing for a sanitary sewer line installation at the time. He was taken to a hospital and is also listed in stable condition.
Three Collapses, Two Days, One Region
Three trenches. Three workers trapped. One dead.
The back-to-back-to-back collapses have raised serious questions about construction site safety across Southeast Michigan. Investigations into all three incidents are ongoing.
No additional details have been released by authorities at this time.
Have you or someone you know worked at a construction site with unsafe trench conditions? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
