Man killed in trench
Published 2:50 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008
FALL CITY _ State Department of Labor and Industry officials
shut down the construction of The Members Club of Aldarra earlier this
week after an accident killed one worker and left another seriously injured.
Tammy Firkins, a spokeswoman for the department, said it could
take anywhere from weeks to months to determine if Oliphant Golf Inc.
followed industry safety guidelines.
“But that doesn’t mean the jobsite is closed that long. It’ll just need to
be safe for people to go back to work,” she said. “When work resumes,
that doesn’t mean that our investigation has ended.”
According to Firkins, the Wisconsin-based company’s safety record
in the state of Washington is clean and the department’s investigation of
the site will determine if any violations were committed that caused
this weekend’s incident.
Oliphant Golf Inc. could not be reached for comment.
At 4:10 p.m. on Sunday, May 7, fire crews were called out to the
site of the future exclusive golf course in the 2700 block of 292nd Ave. S.E.
When firefighters arrived, there were two men stuck in a 12-foot trench,
one of them was unconscious.
Fall City fire Chief Chris Connor said crews were able to pull out
the unconscious 53-year-old man from the ditch, but they were unable to
revive him.
The King County Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an
autopsy on the body of Jose F. Galdamez and concluded that he died from
a “crushing force injury” to his body.
Officials said that the Santa Ana, Calif., resident was apparently
trying to extract his 21-year-old son Michael Galdamez from the ditch but got
stuck in the clay-like soil himself.
Connor described the trench as being about 3 feet wide, 12 feet
deep and 80 feet long. The younger Galdamez was covered up to his
waist with the dirt and it took crews about four hours to free him from the
confining space, Connors said.
Before crews could start the excavation process, however, they
needed to make sure that the surrounding walls of the ditch wouldn’t
crumble. Firefighters placed 4 by 8 foot panels along the sides to prevent any
more erosion.
“There was a lot of clay in the soil so the material packed right back
almost like concrete,” Connors explained. “It was tough digging
and having only room for one person to dig _ but we needed to do what
was safe.”
About 34 rescuers from Fall City, Redmond, Kirkland, Bellevue
and Eastside Fire & Rescue responded to the call.
Michael Galdamez, also of Santa Ana, Calif., was airlifted
to Harborview Medical Center on Sunday. He was treated for fluid loss,
respiratory problems and a fractured left leg. Earlier this week, he was listed
in serious condition.
